LeBron James’ return to the Los Angeles Lakers has helped transform the offense from great to elite.
While James has ceded usage and control to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, he’s juiced up the Lakers’ transition attack both as a playmaker and finisher. Defensively, James serves as a backline communicator who can still diagnose plays and create havoc when able to.
As the oldest player in the league, James has to take extra care of his body in order to make it through the rigors of the regular season. With that in mind, the Lakers ruled out James due to foot injury management against the New Orleans Pelicans as it was the first game of a back-to-back.
Head coach JJ Redick confirmed that the injury is something James is managing but is not of long-term concern.
“It is an injury he’s had in the past, it’s something that we’ve had to manage in the past,” Redick said. “Given the back-to-back and the fact that he’s basically just coming off his training camp, this has been his training camp the last 10 days or so, so just being cautious.”
Redick also acknowledged that the team and James are aiming to play back-to-backs at some point this season once he gets fully ramped up.
“We’re gonna build him up hopefully to be able to play in back-to-backs, that’s the goal,” Redick said. “But you are correct, every back-to-back is a case by case basis. That’s just the reality of the NBA right now. But we want him to be able to play in back-to-backs and so does he, so we’re gonna work towards that.”
The NBA has seen an uptick to injuries to their stars, so Redick and the training staff have every reason to bring James along slowly in Year 23. Although James has looked physically fine since coming back, re-injury is always a risk and Los Angeles needs to stay disciplined as it pertains to his workload.
Resting James against weaker teams like the Pelicans makes sense and they should continue to take advantage of lighter stretches in the schedule. With Los Angeles comfortably winning games with Doncic and Reaves leading the way, James has no reason to feel rushed as he ramps up.
LeBron James focused on winning regardless of role
For the first time in LeBron James’ career, he doesn’t need to be the best player on his team to win games. While some wondered whether or not LeBron would be comfortable taking a back seat, he emphasized that he’s focused on winning games regardless of what his role is.
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