With the season rapidly approaching and a roster powered by aging stars, Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni told the Los Angeles Times' Mike Bresnahan that both Pau Gasol and Steve Nash could see reduced minutes in the upcoming season.
"I think Pau and Nash will be 100% before the season starts," D'Antoni said. "We'll try to go slow with them during preseason and make sure they're OK. We'll see how the season goes but maybe work with them to keep their minutes down to where it's manageable and keep them OK."
With new youth added to the roster, especially on the perimeter, it shouldn't be much difficult to bring Nash's minutes from 32.5 to an ideal 28 minutes per game. In the case of Gasol, the frontcourt hasn't added much depth so reducing his minutes could hold to be difficult, especially with Dwight Howard departing for the Houston Rockets.
D'Antoni added that despite the noise and chatter from critics, he still has the support of Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak and it has enabled him to keep his focus and concentration on the task at hand.
"Mitch and Jim Buss were really supportive and great. I couldn't ask for anything better from the staff and franchise. I don't want to be flippant, but you also have to have an attitude of, 'To hell with everything. Concentrate. Go forward.' You can't get distracted by the noise."
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