LeBron James finally responded to the statement made by Draymond Green on Wednesday about the Cavaliers star playing too many minutes so early on in the season. Green feels that it might come back to haunt the Cavaliers as they embark on regaining the championship back from the Warriors.
James actually agrees with the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. James is currently leading the NBA in minutes per game at 38.1 per Bleacher Report.
“Draymond’s right,” he told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. “We want to get those minutes down for sure. But as of right now, we’ve had two point guards out and we’ve had some different lineup changes, so, I’ve had to play more minutes than I would like, and more minutes than my teammates would like me to have.”
With the Cavaliers dealing with injuries to Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose and Tristan Thompson, it has forced them to play James, who has already played six games that have included forty minutes or more.
“The caliber of players that we have, you always would like to, you know, get a couple more minutes here, couple more minutes there, and be a lot fresher down the stretch,” James noted. “Draymond’s right, he’s right on point with it. But there’s going to be games where I have to play 40. There’s going to be games where I can play 32. Hopefully it all evens out, especially when IT comes back, D-Rose comes back, Tristan comes back, we get more firepower,” James added.
Draymond Green said:
“My concern would be that LeBron is playing so many minutes right now,” Green originally said in his comments. “Yeah, he’s super human but eventually his superhuman powers go away, so that would be more of my concern if I’m a Cavs fan or somebody with the Cavs or a player, is like ‘Man, he’s been playing a lot of 40 minute (nights) and it’s only Nov. 12.'”
According to Tyronn Lue, James being given a major workload is for him to get back into shape after missing training camp and all but one preseason game, despite James telling the media that he’s back in game shape.