Since the NBA has tightened the rules regarding “load management” and NBA franchises will no longer have the right to rest their star players as they wish, the Lakers will have to be creative to try to spare LeBron James who will celebrate his 39th birthday in December. Even if its longevity is exceptional, the weight of the years is felt and you will have to be as careful as possible. Every injury, no matter how small, takes more time to recover from.
For its president Rob Pelinka, this is where the challenge of the offseason lay: being able to strengthen the group to support and assist the King as best as possible.
“It’s very important to have a holistic view of where LeBron James’ career is going and how he’s doing it,” did he slip Thursday in a pre-season press conference. “With the team around him now, the pieces we have in place, those guys are going to step up and do a lot of work early on.”
A dedicated physical preparation
Rob Pelinka can be satisfied with his tour de force since he managed to retain the executives from the end of last season, including Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt, and topped it all off with choice recruits, Gabe Vincent and Christian Wood in the first place even if we must not forget the energizers Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes. It will be up to each of them to take over to help LBJ finish the season without having pulled too hard.
“We need to partner with James to help him get to the end of the season in good health, because that’s his goal. I think with the depth of the squad that we have, the versatility, the shooting, all those things will help us manage that,” continued Rob Pelinka.
At his side, Darvin Ham confirmed that he would be attentive to the case of the Lakers superstar, “long term, month by month, according to different periods of the calendar”. For the rest, Californian leaders know that LeBron James will do his part. Faithful to his lifestyle as a professional athlete for more than 20 years, the “Kid from Akron” has clearly done what is necessary to arrive at the training camp in the shape of his life.
“It’s amazing for a player who already has 20 years under the hood and is preparing for his 21st year like he’s a rookie. He trained at 6 a.m. He’s probably been in our training facility more than any other player during the offseason. He was in the weight room as much as any other player. On all the teams LeBron played on, he always set the tone with his work. There has been nothing but an increase in this trend here”underlined Rob Pelinka.
