Lakers: LeBron James Is Losing Ground to Father Time Says Scout

In the past few seasons, LeBron James has had to miss games due to injury more frequently than at any point of his career.

With the Lakers subpar play through the first quarter of the season, many critics and pundits are starting to list reasons as to why the team is a failure. The team has shown flashes of dominance especially the defensive end, but they still would go through long stretches of scoring droughts or rack up preventable turnovers.

Frustration amongst fans has gotten to the point where they have looked to point the finger at everyone. Blame has been pointed at countless decisions from the Lakers: head coach Vogel’s inconsistent lineups, general manager Rob Pelinka’s roster upheaval, criticism of Anthony Davis’ play (particular his shooting), even LeBron James is starting to get blamed.

James has proved time and time again that he will make anyone eat crow with any doubts on his game, but one Western conference scout believes that this time around, it is warranted.

"He's finding new ways to load manage himself when he's on the court,” the scout tells Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz. “He takes a lot of plays off for many reasons, either mad at his teammates or doesn't [run] back down the floor. He'll attack the rim, fall down and take forever to get up wanting a foul call.”

When the Lakers are struggling and James fails to get foul calls, he will make a habit to stay where he is and argue with the referees rather than help his team play defense on the other side. In times the Lakers go on scoring droughts, these kinds of instances are huge four or five point swings that can dig his team in deeper holes.

James is currently averaging 36.7 minutes per game, the highest since he donned the purple and gold. A big factor as to why the team acquired Russell Westbrook was to help alleviate the workload with James. According to the same scout, with the four-time champ moving more towards the twilight of his career, it seems unsustainable for James to keep this up.

"I don't think it would benefit anyone if he was playing 40 minutes per night every night; he'll break down, which could be what we're seeing. He's losing athleticism, speed, burst, explosion, but that's all-Father Time."

For all the slack about Pelinka getting the brunt of the criticism about the offseason moves, the scout puts the blame solely on James.

"LeBron's a bad GM; Russ is not a good fit there. He doesn't need an older roster around him. They still need LeBron to do everything—not a good recipe for this stage of his career.”

When healthy, James is still a dominant force. He proved that last night when he punished the Magic for 30 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. It would be foolish to doubt James even at this point of his career, but Father Time is undefeated and it evidently will catch up to the King sooner or later.