The Lakers’ ‘cotton wool’ approach for Lebron James
The Los Angeles Lakers star is the second-oldest player in the entire league. His team has chosen to control his playing time, something that could cost them dearly.
On Tuesday, Lebron James began his 21st season in the NBA. The Akron, Ohio-born forward was the standout player for the Lakers in the 119-107 defeat to defending champions, the Denver Nuggets in the opening game of the regular season.
Lebron James started the game alongside D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Taurean Prince and Anthony Davis - a quintet capable of reaching the playoffs but that undoubtedly needs the brilliance of the ‘King’ to maintain their competitiveness in the best league in the world for the 81 games that lie ahead of them this season.
Lebron finished on 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, which makes him the top scorer, top rebounder and second top assist player for the Lakers against the Colorado franchise. He reached those figures playing a total of 29:01 minutes - less than the other four members of the Lakers’ starting lineup and all of Denver’s starters (Murray, Gordon, Porter Jr, Caldwell-Pope and Jokic).
Without Lebron, nothing is the same
The fact that Lebron ended as the 10th player in terms of minutes on-court does not seem coincidental. The Lakers are trying to manage the 38-year-old forward’s playing time in the best way, although that may be detrimental to the team in the short term. In fact, the Nuggets broke the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter, just when Lebron was resting and unable to do anything to help his team.
With a view to the next games, the management of James’ minutes becomes a mathematical problem for Darvin Ham and his assistants, who will have to establish a strategy to get the most out of the ‘King’’s time on the court, while they design a plan to prevent the team from suffering when he is not there. In fact, at the end of the match, Lebron himself could be seen speaking with Ham, probably about the adjustments to be made to achieve the first victory of this season in the next game, against the Suns on Thursday.