Los Angeles Lakers: 5 reasons Avery Bradley needs to be in starting lineup

4. He can handle the ball

LeBron James is 34 years of age right now. He’ll turn 35 just before New Year’s Eve, and has tons of mileage on him.

While he’ll undoubtedly continue to handle the ball and initiate the Lakers’ offense the majority of the time, he needs someone else who can do that at times in order to take some of the load off him.

Bradley may not be a true point guard (he’s more of an undersized 2-guard), but he can handle the ball and bring it upcourt.

He’s shown the ability to attack in the open court, which is important since the Lakers need to continue to play an uptempo game and take advantage of the ample footspeed their roster possesses.

Everyone’s been talking about “load management” with James and allowing him to sit out a good number of games due to “rest.”

Instead of doing that, why not make him delegate some of his responsibilities to other players so that he will be fresh for the playoffs and will continue to play at a high level for as many more seasons as possible?