So far, this season has felt like an exercise in Murphy’s Law for the Los Angeles Lakers.
They have had key injuries to Kendrick Nunn, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, among others, and it has seemed like as soon as one player has gotten healthy, someone else has gotten injured.
With 20 games remaining in the regular season, a lot more could potentially go wrong, and it’s time for head coach Frank Vogel to cut down on risks.
It’s time for him to reduce James’ minutes.
The four-time MVP is averaging 36.8 minutes a game on the season, which is fourth in the league.
Let me remind everyone that James is 37 years old, with perhaps more mileage than any 37-year-old in NBA history, thanks to 10 trips to the NBA Finals.
His body has racked up an insane amount of mileage, and just like with an aging sports car, more mileage and usage means more chances for something to go wrong.
Yes, James still feels the team has a chance to do something, and he’s not willing to give up on the season, but for this team to be able to do something, anything of
It’s time for coach Vogel to keep James to around 32-33 minutes per game until the play-in tournament, if the Lakers even reach the play-in tournament.
Yes, the Lakers lack the frontcourt depth to do so optimally. But they must find a way.
The team just signed 24-year-old 6-foot-9 forward Wenyen Gabriel, who has potential as an energetic man who can play the 4 while grabbing rebounds and hitting some 3-pointers.
Find some slivers of time for him throughout the game. Nothing crazy – just 5-10 minutes in total to see what he has to offer the Lakers.
If Vogel doesn’t reduce James’ playing time, there is a past precedent of what could happen.
In 2013, the Lakers started 17-25 with another supposed superteam that boasted Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, a young Dwight Howard and an aging Kobe Bryant.
They had to huff and puff in the second half of the season just to compete for a playoff spot, despite a gnarly rash of injuries.
Once April arrived, the team was within striking distance of one of the Western Conference’s final playoff spots, and Bryant, who seemed hell-bent on maintaining the team’s dignity, almost refused to ever come out of a game for any rest.
With two games to go, he tore his Achilles against the Golden State Warriors, and just like that, Bryant’s days as an elite or even good NBA player were done.
If the Lakers want to salvage any hopes of competing for the world championship next season, were they to somehow revamp parts of the roster correctly, they must preserve James enough, lest disaster befalls him.
It’s time for coach Vogel to save James from himself, something then-coach Mike D’Antoni couldn’t do with Bryant nine years ago.
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