The Los Angeles Lakers will be without LeBron James for the start of the regular season as he deals with a nerve injury. The Lakers announced last week that James would be sidelined for at least three to four weeks, putting him out for the season opener and beyond. On Wednesday, a new update came regarding James’ potential return from injury as per Shams Charania of ESPN.

Charania reported that James and the Lakers are targeting mid-November as a realistic timeline for his return.

Article Continues Below

“October 30 would be the earliest that the Lakers would officially be reevaluating LeBron James,” Charania reported. “But it is expected he will need at least a few weeks after that point. A source told me tonight that LeBron will be taking a patient approach with this rehab from nerve injury. And so, the ramp-up process for this will be a lot of basketball shape conditioning work.”

The nerve injury for LeBron James first occurred during offseason workouts over the summer, but was not made known until the Lakers began training camp. James is entering an unprecedented 23rd season in the NBA. A couple of months into the regular season, James will turn 41. No NBA players has ever played as long as he has.

This past season, James appeared in 70 games for the Lakers at a little over 34 minutes per game. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.0 steals with splits of 51.3 percent shooting from the field, 37.6 percent shooting from the three-point line and 78.2 percent shooting from the free-throw line.