– No reason to push LeBron
With the playoffs being an extreme long-shot, the time to sit LeBron for the rest of the season is rapidly approaching. As one of the best players in the league, James has logged a ton of minutes in his career. Eight straight trips to the NBA Finals puts a lot of miles on your body, and there really is no reason to play James in games that don’t matter.
Even though this season might have been a failure, the Lakers still have time with James under contract, and his window is certainly not closed. By resting LeBron, the Lakers will be able to let their franchise player rest up a bit earlier and to get himself right for next season.
Also, by sitting James or limiting his minutes, the Lakers likely won’t win too many games. Even though James has not played well defensively this season, he has carried the load on the offensive end. Taking James off the court will allow young players to get more touches and will give the front office and coaching staff a good opportunity to evaluate.
Since James hasn’t been in the situation of missing the playoffs in a long time, it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. With reports of James having his minutes limited and sitting on back-to-backs, we likely won’t see James logging big minutes for the Lakers for the rest of this season.