LeBron is set to be on a minutes restriction this season as part of a long term plan by the Lakers and his teammate Austin Reaves has given his thoughts on it.
Keeping an almost 39-year-old LeBron in the best condition as possible is a no-brainer.
But does keeping him out of the game for longer place more pressure on players like Reaves and the rest of the Lakers supporting crew?
Their shooting guard doesn’t think so.
“I don’t think it changes anything,” Reaves told B/R. “We still have to go out there and play basketball the right way. I’m sure there’s nights where Bron is feeling really well and plays a little more and others when he plays a little less. But at the end of the day, all he cares about is winning. And that’s all we care about as a team.”
On opening night against the Nuggets, James only logged 29 minutes, compared to his career average of 38 minutes per game.
After the 119-107 loss to last year’s champions, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham explained the reasoning behind playing James for less than 30 minutes.
“It’s easy with him to get caught up in the emotion of the game and you tend to forget you want to play these long stretches, but in order for him to be as effective as possible, we have to be mindful of the minute output and how long his stretches are,” Ham said, per ESPN.
READ MORE: LeBron James Responds to Having His Minutes Limited on Opening Night
