Report: Lakers Coach Frank Vogel Plans To Limit LeBron James’ Minutes

LeBron James and Anthony Davis led the five-man team perfectly, and they dominated the second day of training camp. It was so good that LeBron was pulled to rest before the end of the scrimmages. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel talked about LeBron’s minutes and his role in the preseason.

When asked about the minutes he will play LeBron in the six-game exhibition slate, the head coach said, “not a ton.”

“We want to be intelligent,” Vogel explained. “We want to get him enough reps to get him familiar with his teammates and get everybody on the same page, some cohesiveness. But certainly going to be intelligent and not overdo it in the preseason.”

In his debut season with the Lakers, LeBron played 55 games and had career low minutes (32.5).

The head coach will increase LeBron’s camp by pairing him with AD. Vogel will work on the winning formula for his starting lineup. There’s a big chance that these two are joined by Dwight Howard, Avery Bradley and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

“We saw a mismatch in LeBron and Anthony’s team really sort of had their way with the other teams,” Vogel said. “We had three teams out there, and those guys really performed at a high level on both ends of the floor.”

It looks like the head coach would gladly skip training camp and play real games. The Lakers play their first preseason game in San Francisco next weekend against the Golden State Warriors in the opening game for the Chase Center. They will then go to China for two games against the Brooklyn Nets.

“I feel like we’re ready to play right now,” Vogel said. “We put a lot of stuff in, both offensively with our full offense and the variety of things you can do out of it, as well as a lot of our defensive coverages. We’ve had a really productive first couple of days, and I’m not worried about us not being ready to play games against Golden State or in China.”

LeBron is ready to win a title, and Davis is ready to become the defensive player of the year.