Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Hot takes for LeBron James in 2018-19
By Ronald Agers
LeBron James Hot Take Number Two…Will James play the five spot long term?
There are two realities here that bring this possibility to fruition.
Number one, the Lakers are sorely lacking on the back end at the four and the five. JaVale McGee has been a back up for the past few years with the Golden State Warriors. During his tenure, there were a number of DNP-CDs in his box score. Overall McGee hasn’t averaged over 15 minutes in YEARS! This is the guy that the Lakers are hitching their wagons to this season?
If that was the case, LeBron James would not even be close this conversation…but he is.
Number two, LeBron James is the strongest player on the team! I mean this isn’t even close. Strength wise, there is no comparison.
But what does that mean?
LeBron James strolls into his 16th year in the NBA with about a million miles in the tank seemingly in usage rate. The Lakers have promised the same scenario of reducing the workload of LeBron James this season.
Question? You want to reduce the workload, but you’re asking LeBron James to lean against the likes of possibly Nikola Jokic, DeAndre Jordan, Marcin Gortat or maybe even Jusuf Nurkic. With this positionless basketball the Lakers want to play, I don’t even want to get into talking about Clint Capela. Let’s go back to his years in Miami when he balked at times at playing the power forward position. Now you are asking for him to play center? Long term?
On paper, this works. There is no one on planet earth that can stop LeBron James in the post, however, the amount of energy that is required to play the back line contradicts the workload reducing scenario because he will work even harder at times playing defense against the bigger players while still helping initiate the offense.
Something to definitely watch around 25-30 games into the season.