Kobe Bryant returned to practice on Saturday for the first time since suffering a torn Achilles' tendon in April, but he still has a long ways to go before playing in an actual game.

“I know we're all excited, everybody's excited, and I'm sure he's excited, but [it's] a little bit premature right now,” Mike D'Antoni said Sunday. “You're dealing with, ‘Is he sore today? Is there a setback tomorrow?' That's the first step and there's a lot of steps to be taken, so I just think we need to be cautious. We just better be cool and chill out a little bit.”

Bryant did some drills and light shooting in the practice session.

“He's a presence, no doubt, and we need that presence, especially at the end of games,” D'Antoni said. “But we've got games to win and there's going to be a bunch of them before he comes back. So we're going to have to do our business.”

D'Antoni doesn't expect Bryant to ever be fully the same.

“There will be some struggles early. There's no way that he comes back with everything,” D'Antoni said. “But at the same time, his 10% is better than most people.”