Cavs coach David Blatt says LeBron James will play reduced minutes this season
Oct 26, 2014, 6:30 PM EDT
LeBron James LeBron James has played a lot of basketball in his 11-year career. Between those 11 seasons, a career’s worth of playoffs (including four straight trips to the Finals with the Miami Heat), and the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics with Team USA, the four-time MVP’s mileage far exceeds his years in the NBA.
That’s going to change, according to his new head coach in Cleveland, David Blatt.
From Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon:
“I don’t have a number but I am cognizant of the fact and we are conscious of the fact that, certainly early on 39 minutes a game is a lot,” Blatt said following practice Sunday. “We gotta keep our wits about us in terms of thinking long term with LeBron.”
Blatt is right: 39 minutes per game for the 29-year-old James is a lot. He’s been among the leaders in minutes played for most of his career. Last year with the Heat, he averaged 37.7 minutes per game, the sixth-most in the league. In 2012-13, he averaged 37.9 minutes, the eighth-highest total. In his initial seven-year stint with the Cavaliers before leaving for Miami, he exceeded 40 minutes per game in four different seasons, and 39 in two more. And that’s just regular-season minutes, before you even get to the playoffs, where James has played at least 40 minutes a game in all but the most recent of his nine career trips to the postseason.
In the past, James has played that many minutes out of necessity. None of his Cavaliers teams had much depth, and all four Heat teams dealt with injuries throughout his tenure there. Last season, he took on a heavy load while Dwyane Wade took frequent rest days in an attempt to keep him fresh for the playoffs. As the greatest player in the world in the prime of his career, and an overall physical freak, it was only logical that James played as many minutes as he could handle.
Now, though, as he prepares to hit his 30th birthday, his new team is wisely realizing that it needs to be more conservative. Blatt has already said that James will get more days off during the regular season (he’s never missed more than seven games in any year). Given how successful the San Antonio Spurs have been in extending the primes of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker by reducing their minutes and giving them days off, it’s not a surprise that the Cavs are following suit with James. They have the depth to allow it.
There are going to be nights where James doesn’t play, or doesn’t play that much. But if reducing his minutes from 38 to 32 extends his prime another couple of seasons, everybody wins.
-
- blogsk3tball - Oct 26, 2014 at 6:34 PM
-
You’d hate for him to cramp in the NBA finals or something!
I’ve got a new article up guys
-
- ranfan12 - Oct 26, 2014 at 8:50 PM
-
…
-
- trueballs - Oct 26, 2014 at 6:51 PM
-
I would be shocked if LeBron averages 32mpg. It would be selfless of him, but expect 35-36mpg. Stars (and every level player, really) care about their numbers more than they admit.
I think LeBron is more likely to miss a game or two than play significantly fewer minutes.
And Coach Blatt, get ready to be flexible with anything concerning LBJ and his role. Spoelstra will agree. That being said I like Blatt’s confidence and command as a coach so far.
-
- miamboy - Oct 27, 2014 at 7:08 AM
-
this is what LeBron does to play basketball..I’ll bet he overrides the coach and goes in when the cav’s are behind! He can’t stand to lose one game!
-
- whatacrocker - Oct 26, 2014 at 7:00 PM
-
Good Lord Almighty. BronBron hasn’t turned 30 yet, but he needs more rest? He has got to be the softest “superstar” I’ve ever seen.
-
- ProBasketballPundit - Oct 26, 2014 at 9:32 PM
-
Did you read the article? He’s played two extra seasons worth of playoff games. I bet you wish whatever superstar you root for had played in 160 playoff games. Take your trolling elsewhere.
-
- rafy7551 - Oct 27, 2014 at 9:36 AM
-
I thought that he is a physical freak and is in the best shape of his life so it shouldn’t be a problem for him… I will be shocked if he doesn’t play 38 minutes per game and play 75-80 games this season if the Cavs want to win…
-
- whatacrocker - Oct 26, 2014 at 10:42 PM
-
I root for the Lakers. And Kobe, for all his faults, never begged the coach to give him more rest.
-
- rjthakid - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:31 PM
-
READ THE ARTICLE.
Lebron has played a lot of minutes in the regular season, a lot more in the post season, and also plays on the USA teams. So with this in mind, if he plays a fewer minutes in the regular season, on a team that will likely be either the first or second seed, why would you make such a silly comment?
-
- andrewwiggins22 - Oct 26, 2014 at 7:05 PM
-
I can’t believe LeBron hasn’t completed an 82-regular season yet in his career while Jordan has done it 9 times.
-
- bougin89 - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:27 PM
-
Well, I’ll start with 82 game seasons are too long but that’s for another discussion. Lebron has been durable, you can’t really argue that regardless of a game or two missed here and there.
-
- rjthakid - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:34 PM
-
Michael Jordan is the best player of all-time in my opinion. He’s better than Lebron, better than Kobe, better than KD, better than Bird, better than Magic.
Ok, now that we’ve got that out of the way…..
So what?
Seriously, so the $*(^&@( what?
Michael played all 82 games 9 times. Great. So? Mike was the best, but don’t WORSHIP the guy.
-
- savvybynature - Oct 26, 2014 at 7:18 PM
-
If Blatt turns out to be half as smart as he has sounded so far, he will turn out to be the Cavs’ second most important acquisition this offseason.
No reason to run your star into the ground during the regular season, especially in the weak Eastern Conference.
-
- genuine30096 - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:14 PM
-
It shouldn’t be a problem. The Cavs are a balanced team.
-
- genuine30096 - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:15 PM
-
@ Savvybynature …. ABSOLUTELY!
-
- jasper36 - Oct 26, 2014 at 8:01 PM
-
Is it really a big difference between 37.7 and 36 or 35 minutes a game? Because let’s just be honest Blatt is not going to cut his minutes to the point to where there will be a significant difference. And it definitely won’t work if the minutes cut comes at the expense of LeBron’s stats. At the end of the day it’s LeBron’s decision on how many minutes he plays or doesn’t. Because there were plenty of times when Spolstera didn’t want him playing in Miami, and LeBron overrode him. And I don’t blame LeBron, because he knows what his body can handle and can’t handle.
-
- bougin89 - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:32 PM
-
More than likely they’ll have him on a set rest program. Say, for example,his plan is to get subbed out with 2 minutes-ish left in the first quarter and doesn’t come back in until 4 minutes-ish into the second quarter(or something to that extent). He’s typically been on some type of plan like that but they’ll probably just expand his time on the bencht a bit.
I would think a more effective rest strategy would be to strategically figure out the games where he doesn’t play at all.
-
- seasickcecil - Oct 26, 2014 at 8:13 PM
-
Should be no problem to give him a night off against teams like the Sixers and Bucks.
-
- rexgrossman8 - Oct 26, 2014 at 8:29 PM
-
less work, same pay equals good deal. Won’t last more than a few weeks though. Same deal with Kobe.
-
- genuine30096 - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:10 PM
-
Perhaps you are thinking of Wade during the 2013/14 season. Remember how he sat out back-to-back games, yet still received “same pay”? But, Already, Blatt is already proving to be smarter than Spoelstra, and everyone knows James is better than Wade, so the end result should prove to be 10x better.
-
- genuine30096 - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:07 PM
-
Good for Blatt. He is thinking logically. The Heat did the same thing last season, but with Wade. Of course, Wade STILL couldn’t produce after sitting out nearly half the regular season. I think the Cavs will go far into the post season, if not win it all, with LeBron NOT being used like a workhorse throughout the regular season. After all, it IS a ‘team’ sport, right? They shouldn’t solely rely on Lebron … the way Riley, Spoelstra, Wade and Bosh did last season. I am READY for the regular season!
#LetsGo
-
- genuine30096 - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:11 PM
-
It shouldn’t be a problem. The Cavs are a balanced team.
-
- frankyt35 - Oct 28, 2014 at 10:20 AM
-
Not really they are not going to b a real good defensive team sorry the Bulls are a better all round team and play better D and a better coach sorry just speaking the truth.
-
- rjthakid - Oct 27, 2014 at 1:51 PM
-
Just makes sense.
Lebron learned from the idiotic “Not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7….” comments and he’s much more reserved in his comments, but don’t let that fool you. They didn’t trade away an extremely promising young prospect for nothing. They want to win it all this year.
With that in mind, why would you have Lebron on the floor if the Cavs are up 15? You have Kyrie, K-Love and Waiters. Lebron is older than those guys and as the article mentioned, he’s played a LOT more ball than the average NBA 30yr old. Let him take a seat and drink some Gatorade.
Then let him play as many minutes as he can handle in every close playoff game.
