The Los Angeles Lakers have been rolling this season, and they added to their win column after the latest game against the New Orleans Pelicans. What's been more fulfilling is that they've been able to do most of their winning without LeBron James, who just returned to the court about a week or so ago, and didn't play against the Pelicans.
The Lakers are now in the business of managing James' court time, and that means he probably won't play back-to-backs as of now. With the Lakers set to play the Phoenix Suns on the second game of a back-to-back, head coach JJ Redick was asked about James' playing situation.
“It's something we've had to manage,” Redick said via Broderick Turner of the LA Times. “Given the back-to-back and the fact that he's basically just coming off his training camp — this has been his training camp over the last 10 days or so — [we're] just being cautious.”
Redick is still unsure how many back-to-backs that James will play this season, but at this point, they're still trying to build him into shape.
“No, we're going to build him up, hopefully, to be able to play in back-to-backs,” Redick said. “That's the goal. But you are correct. Every back-to-back is a case-by-case. That's just the reality of the NBA right now. But we want him to be able to play in back-to-backs. So does he. So, we're going to work toward that.”
It's no surprise that the Lakers are doing what they can to manage James' minutes. Outside of him coming back from injury, he's 40 years old and is in his 23rd season in the league. James probably understands the situation at hand as well, and should feel comfortable with coming along slowly, especially since the Lakers are playing well.
It will be interesting to see how things go with James as the season continues.
