It will be a balancing act all season long: LeBron James wants to play a lot and the Lakers need him on the court, but he will turn 39 during this, his 21st NBA season, so they need to make sure he gets plenty of recovery time.
During the preseason, that means nights off. LeBron confirmed he will not play in the Lakers preseason opener against the Warriors on Saturday in San Francisco. Here’s LeBron’s comment, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“Six preseason games, so hopefully I can get to at least half of them,” James said after practice Thursday. “But we’ll see. I think every game will dictate it. I will not be playing in Saturday’s game, that’s for sure, in the Bay. But we’ll see after that.”
LeBron is officially the oldest player in the NBA this season; his reaction to that is classic.
🤯 LeBron’s reaction! 💥 pic.twitter.com/SVMEK1Miyt
— NBA (@NBA) October 5, 2023
LeBron is coming off a torn tendon in his right foot that caused him to miss 13 games near the end of last season, however, he returned unexpectedly early for the final eight games and the Lakers playoff run to the Western Conference Finals. He has fully recovered from that injury, but the Lakers know that with all the miles on LeBron’s legs they need to keep his minutes down this season and find nights he can have off (while balancing that with the new Player Participation Policy of the league). Lakers’ coach Darvin Ham talked about that.
“Just kind of easing into it,” Ham said of the plan for James. “The fact that our roster is what it is, he doesn’t have to come start the season with his cape on, so to speak. ... The help that he has around him will allow him to not have to be full throttle in every practice and every preseason game.”
The Lakers’ next preseason game after Saturday is Monday, Oct. 9, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas against the Nets.
