That’s not even counting his summer basketball for Team USA.
LeBron has averaged 39 minutes per game over his entire career, and last season averaged 36 minutes per game, the lowest of his career up to this point. In the 2015 playoffs, however, the 30-year-old played 42.5 minutes per game and it certainly showed by game six of the Finals.
Even if a great amount of that can be attributed to the fact that Irving and Love were injured, one of the main priorities for Coach David Blatt should be to keep his superstar as well rested as possible.
At 30 years old with more minutes played than almost every player in the history of the game has logged in their entire career, and with hopefully still seven or eight years left in the tank in Cleveland, this will be something to take into account virtually every time the Cavs take the floor.
If Cavs fans get upset over resting LeBron on the second night of a back-to-back, too bad.
I’d go one step further, though and advocate for players like Love, Irving and Varejao to be rested often because of their injury histories.
When it happens, (and believe me it will happen) we are sure to hear the moaning and complaining of fans who say, “I spent my hard-earned money and LeBron isn’t even playing.” To those people I simply say, tough luck.
Here’s a piece of advice to avoid that predicament, look at the schedule and don’t buy tickets to the second game of a back-to-back. It’s not that hard.
The Cavs are a relatively young team, but the Spurs model of resting stars is the best way to reduce the risk of injury leading up to the playoffs.
To all the people who think winning the number one seed in the Eastern Conference and clinching home court advantage is a huge priority, just look back at how last postseason went down.
The Cavs were the second seed and cruised through Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta [the #1 seed] with ease even without two of their stars much of the way. When the Cavs played Golden State in the Finals they split games one and two in Oakland and took the home court advantage away from the Warriors.
Home court advantage was hardly a factor last season. The biggest factor was health and fatigue.
So this season, if the Cavs aren’t rolling through opponents between October and April, don’t sweat it. What’s more important is managing minutes and keeping LeBron, Love, Kyrie and as many of the key role players healthy as possible.
Another factor to take into account is that last season Cleveland’s bench was down to two or three guys seeing meaningful minutes by the time the playoffs started.
This lack of depth was an issue that contributed to the Cavs falling short of an NBA title.
If Blatt can find a way to involve more guys in the rotation early in the season, not only will it limit the minutes for LeBron, Love, and company, but it will also create more cohesion and allow the second unit to be more dependable come postseason.
The absence of Tristan Thompson could have a huge impact on that, but whoever is on the roster should be able to contribute. So don’t take it as a bad sign if guys like Richard Jefferson, James Jones, Sasha Kaun, Matthew Dellavedova, and Mo Williams are seeing a substantial amount of minutes this season, even after Shumpert and Irving are healthy.
It is all going to help the team in the long-run.
Blatt admitted at Media Day that he had a lot to learn after his first year as an NBA coach.
For the Cavs to be successful, one of the biggest lessons of all may need to be managing minutes and setting up a balanced rotation. It took LeBron some time to trust his supporting cast in Miami, and in year-two the Heat came back fired up and an even better all-around team.
I expect nothing less than that in the 2015-2016 season now that LeBron and the team have some chemistry and a burning desire to bring the title home.
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