LeBron James is playing a lot this year. He leads the league in minutes per game, and until Isaiah Thomas makes his return from his hip injury, it seems like he won’t get the chance to rest. This hasn’t been a massive issue or anything yet, but LeBron is getting older and shouldering a massive workload isn’t the best idea.
LeBron has admitted that he’s playing too much, while Warriors star Draymond Green has said he believes this is an issue facing the Cavaliers. As for Cleveland coach Ty Lue, he believes that all of this is necessary.
Lue was asked by the media after Cleveland’s win over Detroit if he has a formula of sorts to keep LeBron fresh, which led to the Cavs’ coach listing a number of all-time greats who needed to be on the floor to help their team win later in their careers.
“Yeah, I hear about that all the time,” Lue said, according to cleveland.com. “I played with Michael Jordan when he was 39, he played 37 minutes a night. Karl Malone was 37, played 38 minutes a night. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe. Everybody’s built different. If you’re one of the greats, sometimes you’ve got to play, sometimes you get rest like tonight.”
Lue didn’t say if he thinks this is a problem, but he is obviously tired of getting asked about his star player’s workload. LeBron seems to believe that he can take his foot off the gas a little once Thomas gets back onto the floor, and it stands to reason that he and Lue have discussed how the team will handle his minutes upon having the All-NBA guard in the fold. But if the team isn’t able to get into a rhythm with Thomas at the helm, Lue is prepared to ride LeBron for as long as his body will hold up.
