Dave McMenaminESPN Staff Writer4 min read
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Los Angeles Lakers have plans to help LeBron James extend his unprecedented peak into the 21st season of his stellar career, and that includes adding talent around him rather than reducing his minutes. .
“LeBron, he’s doing a great job of taking care of himself,” Lakers coach Davin Hamm said Thursday at a press conference ahead of next week’s start of training camp in Los Angeles. “Now with the team around him, the pieces that we have in place, those guys are going to step up and do a lot of the heavy lifting early on.”
James, who turns 39 in December, averaged 35.5 minutes per game last season, down from the 37.2 minutes he averaged in 2021-22, but still better than the 37.2 minutes he averaged in the previous three seasons. More in any game. season with the Lakers. Statistically, James was still impactful — averaging 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists on 50% shooting — but a torn tendon in his right foot caused him to miss 27 games.
Although James’ overall performance has not declined significantly since joining the Lakers, his body has betrayed him at times. He missed just 71 games in his first 15 years in the league and has missed 111 games over the past five seasons due to injury.
Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka praised James’ work ethic and mental approach during the offseason after the Lakers were swept out of the Western Conference Finals by the Denver Nuggets in a disappointing end to the postseason. .
“For a player who’s been around for 20 years and prepared like a rookie for 21 years, it’s shocking,” Pelinka said. “He’s been training at 6 a.m. this offseason. Probably as much as any player has been in our building. As much as any player has been in the weight room. Any team LeBron has played on, his job has been very consistent in setting the tone.
“What you’ve seen here is just an increase. To me, we should be talking about it, not talking about it. He’s definitely been talking about it this offseason.”
Pelinka has largely retained last season’s core of players, with Anthony Davis, Austin Reeves, D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura and Jared Vander Bildt renews contract. Los Angeles completed the lineup with youth, athleticism and shooting ability, signing 27-year-old guard Gabe Vincent, 29-year-old forward Taurian Prince, 28-year-old big man Christian Wood, 23-year-old center Jackson Hayes and 24-year-old swingman Cam Reddish.
The Lakers also signed two rookies, 20-year-old Jalen Hood-Hiffino from Indiana and 21-year-old Maxwell Lewis from Pepperdine University.
“We have to work with (James) to help him finish (the season) healthy all the way because that’s his goal,” Pelinka said. “So I think adding our depth, versatility, shooting ability, all of those things are going to help us do that.”
He joked that based on James’ experience, the NBA’s new rest policy — which cracks down on healthy players missing games to get a night off — shouldn’t apply to James.
“He followed the rest rule,” Hamm said.
The second-year Lakers coach added that he will take a long-term view of the team’s 82-game schedule and look for opportunities to lighten James’ burden.
“Big picture, month by month, different parts of the calendar,” Hamm said.
Both Ham and Pelinka supported the new rest policy, but the Lakers executive proposed what he believed was a better solution.
“One of the things we discussed (with) the competition committee was (if) we could eliminate back-to-back (games),” Pelinka said. “This is something we would support. Can we eliminate them completely?”
The Lakers have 15 back-to-back games this season, up from 12 last year.
While James, Davis and Reeves were obviously successful starters last season, Ham announced Thursday that Russell will serve as the team’s primary ball-handler after being benched in the Denver series. Hand return.
“He’s our starting point guard,” Hamm said. “I would encourage him to be confident. He’s a very smart basketball player and he comes back with a lot of resentment. He chose us and we believed in him and he’s one of those guys who has a lot of pride and passion and not only does he Personal performance, but also the performance of his teammates.
“He’s another guy who’s going to have a great season.”