Analyst Reveals Scenario On LeBron James’ Minutes Changing

The Los Angeles Lakers are playing much better than they played in the past few seasons. They have LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the roster. Well, they had LeBron last season, but he was injured, and Davis was playing with the New Orleans Pelicans. Things took a good turn for the Lakers, and they dominate the league with a 12-2 record. In the win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron scored 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Davis had 34 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. Things look really good for the Lakers, but there are 82 games in the season. Will Frank Vogel restrict LeBron’s minutes on the floor.

Washington Post’s Ben Golliver on the Scoop B Radio Podcast and discussed this topic.

If you are worried that the Lakers may burn out, Golliver will agree with you. The same thing happened last season. They played really well before LeBron’s injury on Christmas day. Everything went down the hill following that injury, and the young core struggled to score points. Los Angeles needs to keep LeBron and Davis healthy even if that means resting the king. If the team rests LeBron or Davis, their winning formula will change, because the Lakers don’t have the same depth as the Clippers as Golliver notes.

Well, if these two stay healthy and make the postseason, the rest of the NBA should be really worried. LeBron in the postseason? And Davis? You can’t beat that.

“We saw it happen last year too,” Golliver said. “People forget that the Lakers were pretty good before Christmas, right? And then LeBron goes down and everything falls apart. So I worry about LeBron’s pacing and where there will be a situation down the stretch of the season where they feel like they have done enough good work where they can give LeBron some time off, I think that can make some sense going into the playoffs and also with Anthony Davis we’ve seen a little bit of bumps and bruises already he did sit out one game. It didn’t sound like it was super serious with his rib but of course you want to make sure that he is in pristine health because they’re such a different team to me I think that roster is pretty top heavy with their top 2 players.

“If either of those guys is kind of limited, their winning formula changes to me and I guess if I compare the Clippers to the Lakers I like the Clippers depth quite a bit more than I like the Lakers depth. But as long as they’re healthy and good to go going into the postseason, they are really going to be a tough out for basically everybody. So I think that while they’re not going to play that load management game, and LeBron says look I’m healthy I want to play, I do think it could get to the point where we got a seed locked up and it’s April or it’s late March, maybe they get sort of creative how they handle minutes a little bit just to make sure those guys are fresh.”

Maybe Vogel will play with their minutes just to keep them strong for the postseason. He has already discussed this topic with LeBron, but the king always goes for a few more. That’s just LeBron and his competitive nature. He is chasing numbers and titles. He promised to win a title with the team. But, he needs to stay healthy to accomplish that.

For now, LeBron, Davis and the rest of the team look really good. Let’s hope they stay good. Magic Johnson says that LeBron plays his best basketball, and he can sure recognize a good game. In other words, this title belongs to King James.