The Los Angeles Lakers are nearing the end of an era as Kobe Bryant's retirement seems imminent. One thing that they would like to assure is that their franchise player won't come out of the league injured again.

According to coach Byron Scott, he will give the veteran limited minutes but that will still depend on Kobe Bryant. For the head coach, if he sees Kobe being efficient in the court, he might as well put him out there.

First up, he addressed the obvious issue for the aging superstar, playing time.

"I think the biggest decision is playing time, trying to make that as limited as possible and also back-to-back games," Scott said via Yahoo Sports. "That's something we have to talk about. Other than that, there really is no other decision to make. He wants to play, and he wants to go out the way he wants to go out - if this is indeed his final year."

But he also clarified that fans will get some fair share of action from Kobe after spending two years mostly on the sidelines.

"I didn't mean play as limited as possible," Scott said. "Obviously we want to keep him as efficient as possible, but I know he knows his body better than anybody. When we start talking about those minutes, I want to listen to him more than anything."

"I'm not going to go by what I think he can play like I did last year, I want to really go by what he thinks he can play. Then I want to make sure we stick to that."

In fact, there is another role Kobe Bryant can fulfill and that is to serve as a mentor for young legs like D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and Jordan Clarkson.