There's been a lot of speculation into how much Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will be on the floor in the 2020-21 season. The NBA along with the NBPA agreed on a Dec. 22 start date, which gave teams that made a deep run in the 2020 playoffs a smaller window of recovery from the prior season.
Los Angeles Lakers president Rob Pelinka gave a little insight as to what to expect from the star forward ahead of the upcoming season.
Article Continues Below“That'll just be a balancing act throughout the season,” Pelinka said, via Dave McMenamin in ESPN. “Recognizing that there was an extremely short layoff between championship and the start of the season and kind of figuring out what's best for LeBron, what's best for his health, the team's health, what's best for the league and kind of walking that carefully and thoughtfully throughout the year.”
Players such as Danny Green and Jared Dudley have alluded to the fact that if the season was to start in December, players such as James likely wouldn't be participating immediately. James, 35, is entering his 18th season in the league come December and just finished his 17th season fewer than two months ago. The idea of the future Hall of Famer turning around and playing in his normal 34-35 minute range may be uncharted territory upon the season's commencement.
James will likely opt for the load management route on some nights, seeing as how he'll have to preserve his body in order to make another run in the playoffs. The Lakers in the meantime should remain active in finding some additional depth at the forward position in the event that King James is absent for some games.