Byron Scott: I would ‘never, never, never’ bench Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant’s role won’t be getting scaled back anytime soon, at least according to Byron Scott.

“I would never, never, never do that,” the Lakers coach told ESPN’s Baxter Holmes on Friday about the possibility of benching Bryant for poor play. “That’s not an option whatsoever. No, that’s not an option.”

Bryant has been terrible for the Lakers, with the lowest field goal percentage among qualified players and more field goal attempts per game than points. On Tuesday, he was just 1-for-14.

However, Scott seems willing to let Bryant continue to shoot, even though it’s becoming more and more apparent that he’s not getting anything close to a good Bryant ever again.

Scott simply reaffirmed the plan to keep Bryant healthy and try to put him in position to succeed.

“Absolutely,” Scott said. “And we’ll just roll with the punches.”

Perhaps, then, Scott will want to start managing Bryant’s minutes a little better. It probably won’t transform Bryant, but it can’t hurt.