LeBron James and Anthony Davis had a huge summer helping Team USA win gold and many are wondering if this will hamper their production with the Lakers in the 2024-25 season.
LeBron will be 40 years old in December, but didn’t miss a beat in Paris, logging a total of 147 minites across the team’s six games.
Davis logged a total of 99 minutes for Team USA.
Both have become quite injury prone over the last few seasons, especially LeBron, after he barely missed any time in his first 15 seasons in the league.
However, incoming Lakers coach Redick doesn’t seem at all concerned about his star players’ mileage over the summer.
“I mean, look, those guys are professionals in every sense of the word, Redick said on the Lakeshow Podcast. “My concern for them about whether or not they’ll be ready to play on Oct. 22 and be in shape, I don’t have that concern. We’re gonna work with [athletic trainer] Mike [Mancias] and Ish [associate athletic trainer Jon Ishop], making sure that they feel that they’re in a great place to start the regular season. They’ll certainly be involved in training camp and the preseason even here in September as well as preseason games.”
James doesn’t often log many minutes in the Lakers’ preseason games, but this season may be different.
The team will need time to familiarise themselves with the way Redick will be running things and preseason is the perfect time to do that.
Away from LeBron & AD, LA have had a disastrous off-season.
Jarred Vanderbilt is still injured and looks likely to miss the start of the season after opting not to have surgery last season.
Christian Wood had surgery on his knee today and will miss the first two months of the season.
Gabe Vincent has played 11 total games since being traded from Miami in 2023.