The Los Angeles Lakers announced that superstar LeBron James will be re-evaluated in approximately 3-4 weeks with sciatica on his right side. That means he will miss the season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21.
It remains to be seen exactly how much time James will miss, but being evaluated in four weeks would be around the ninth or 10th game of the regular season. Considering LeBron is on the verge of turning 41 and entering his unprecedented 23rd season though, the organization will be cautious to ensure the injury doesn’t linger throughout the whole regular season.
With James out, that puts more on the plates of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves to run the Lakers’ offense. That may be why the Lakers have kept Doncic out of training camp practices and preseason games coming off his EuroBasket run this past summer.
Players like Rui Hachimura, Jake LaRavia, Marcus Smart, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent and Dalton Knecht could all see their roles increase as well.
This is certainly not an ideal start to the season for the Lakers, especially considering how competitive the Western Conference is expected to be. They can only play the cards they are dealt though, so the hope is that James recovers in the next month and will be back in game action shortly after. If he needs more time then that though, the organization surely won’t hesitate to give the future Hall of Famer whatever he needs.
In his illustrious 23-year career, this will mark the first time LeBron is not on the floor for his team on Opening Night.
LeBron James believes Lakers roster will allow him to ramp up throughout season
The Lakers will be cautious with LeBron James and this injury and he believes the added depth to the roster will allow for him to ramp up throughout the year.
“Absolutely,” he recently said. “When you have a dynamic, transcendent player like Luka. When you have an unbelievable complementary player in AR [Austin Reaves]. Some of the vets we got, bringing in Marcus Smart, a championship pedigree guy. Bringing in DA [Deandre Ayton], been to the Finals as well in Phoenix. And some of the other guys we got Rui another year under his belt, Vando is back healthy. So we look forward to what we can accomplish and, like you said, me being 40 on the brink of 41, I don’t have to rush myself to get to 100% in October and November and every month we’ll ramp up. But I’m happy with where I am right now.”
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