After being shut down for the rest of the season, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is motivated for next season.
The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a bit of a disappointing season this year. They fell short of expectations, as they missed the playoffs despite adding James this offseason.
When the Lakers signed James, it looked like it was going to be likely that they would snap their playoff drought. However, largely due to injuries, the Lakers were not able to make the playoffs this season.
Since the Lakers have basically been out of the playoff hunt for a couple of weeks now, they have been limiting the time that James plays. However, they recently decided to just shut LeBron down, rather than play him in the remaining games.
This move certainly made sense for the Lakers. The remaining games for the Lakers are meaningless, and James did suffer a scary groin injury this season. In all likelihood, James has not been 100 percent from that injury this season, and getting him healthy for next season is important.
Recently, James talked about being motivated for next season after missing the playoffs and being shut down for the season. Here’s what he said to Joe Vardon of The Athletic as transcribed by LakersNation.com.
James is certainly in uncharted waters this summer. Really since he was a very young player in the NBA, James has been in the NBA Playoffs, and playing deep into the playoffs. For eight straight seasons, James was the representative from the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. As an individual, James has basically been a dynasty in the East. However, that streak will be coming to an end for James this season.
Due to his groin injury, resting James for the rest of the season was smart for the Lakers. As an older player now, James missed a significant amount of time this season due to injury for the first time in his career.
Even though this season was a failure for the Lakers, they can certainly bounce back next year with a healthy James. Getting James some extra time to heal can certainly be valuable for next season and beyond.