LeBron James has performed at a consistently high level during his five years with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he has clearly become injury-prone.
The once incredibly durable superstar has only played in just over 56 games since joining the team, and many are increasingly concerned that he’s playing too much minutes. He averaged 35.5 minutes per game last season, 37.2 minutes per game the year before that, and 37.8 minutes per game in January 2023, which is a crazy number for a 38-year-old player.
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Fortunately, the team will reportedly be more cautious about James’ playing time and workload (h/t Lakers Daily ).
By movement:
“James’ health is the most important factor in the Lakers’ championship bid. He missed 111 games due to injury in his five seasons with the Lakers, and only missed 71 games in his first 15 seasons in the league.
“The Lakers plan to manage James’ minutes and offensive workload more than they have in years past, and Pelinka points to the team’s depth as a way to do that. Ham said the team’s goal is to pass James of “time per game, big picture, monthly, different parts of the calendar” to be more efficient.”
This time last year, Los Angeles had virtually no depth at any forward position behind James. But now, it has Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish. In addition, the team also has Christian Wood, who is expected to play at the 5 position most of the time, but can also fill the power forward position, which is James’ current main position.
In addition, with guards who are good at scoring and assisting such as D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves, James will have the richest lineup in years. This should all result in less playing time, less usage, and hopefully better health for the NBA’s all-time scoring leader.