Lakers News: Why LeBron James Should Be Healthier This Year Than He Was in 2023

Entering year 21 and having battled injuries for each of the past few seasons, whether or not Los Angeles Lakers All-NBA forward LeBron James can stay on the court is arguably the biggest X-factor in your Lakers' season.

James has averaged just 55.6 games played per year through his five with Los Angeles (albeit, the 2020-2021 campaign was only 72 games), but Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report provides some analysis for why he thinks LeBron will play 60 this season.

"Fewer minutes per game will help James pace himself more successfully through the season....Some of that will come from the Lakers adjusting to the NBA's new resting policy, but a better team around him will help keep James healthier through 2023-24.

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Eric Pincus, Bleacher Report

Pincus boils his expectation of James to play at least a few more games down to the notion of LeBron pacing himself through the season by playing fewer minutes per game.

He provides two reasons for this, one of which being the NBA's new resting policy, and the second being the Lakers' better roster around the King.

Pincus' logic makes some sense. While the first reason doesn't have much backing, the second one definitely does.

The NBA's new resting rule requires that star players play in nationally televised games, each team must have no more than one star player sitting per game, and more. This rule is bound to impact certain teams like the Clippers for example, as Kawhi Leonard and Paul George often sat out games together. With the new rule in place, that won't be possible, absent serious injuries to both of them.

LeBron, however, is actually an exception to this new rule. Per the NBA's guidelines of the policy:

"The policy includes exceptions for injuries and personal absences, as well as pre-approved absences in back-to-back schedule circumstances based on a player’s age, career workload or serious-injury history.

"For example, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and other players who are at least 35 years old on opening night or have appeared in 1,000 career games or logged more than 34,000 regular-season minutes will fall into this category. Their teams must notify the league in writing at least one week in advance explaining why the player’s participation will be limited."

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Steve Aschburner, NBA

Evidently, James will face no obligation to play in more games this season off of the new league-wide mandate.

That said, Pincus' second reason absolutely makes sense. With this Lakers roster being deeper and more skilled than any other team in the LeBron/AD era, both of them will be able to play fewer games and fewer minutes. The onus will fall less on them than it has in previous seasons.

This would allow LeBron (and AD) to sit out large portions of games in blowouts, or stay rested for more important games down the stretch. New additions like Taurean Prince, Gabe Vincent, and Christian Wood, can shoulder more of the burden.

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