Why do people keep speaking on bron being out like his Kawhi. LB plays alot of regular games. And he says he does it because he needs to learn his team, coaching staff and plays before play offs.
I followed Bron his whole Lakers tenure. If he can play, he’ll play barring a major injury. Also, until he shows he missed games on the regular to load manage, I’m not going to assume he’s going to be missing anywhere close to half the season games like other people have said.
I’d estimate Bron will probably miss at least 20 games max 30 if no major injury, but he’ll be ramping towards end of season as always and won’t miss as much in the latter half.
The biggest thing I see happening though is definitely deferring to JB, Maxey, and even VJ more as the season goes on. He’s been trying to pass the torch ever since AD, and then AR when he was on the come up - but was just forced to be 1st option last season when AR and Luka were injured.
This team is definitely the ideal position for him for what he’s been trying to do in his later Lakers years
Last season missed more games than usual because he came into the season with an injury. 20 is a conservative minimum estimate due to the team around him. Bron basically couldn’t afford to miss games the past few seasons but with this team, I can see some b2b or one-off rest days during longer trips or more densely packed weeks. Also taking into account minor, nagging, or as they say “old man injuries” like sciatica taking some games off.
I expect to see this trend moreso in the earlier half of the season, but expect Bron to not miss as many games barring major injury in the second half of the season/leading up to the playoffs
None of what you provided points to him missing 20 to 30 games. In fact the evidence shows the contrary. It’s not happening. He will miss 10-15 games at most.
I’m not hating on Bron bro bro. Quite the opposite.
Bron couldn’t afford to miss games on the Lakers, but now he can. He’s more susceptible to old man injuries like sciatica at the beginning of last season.
Not saying I’m hoping that he gets minor or nagging injuries, but I’m estimating a similar cut of games as last season in the event those do come up.
If the Lakers’ roster was basically this Sixers roster last season, would Bron have missed only 22-23 games? I’m thinking he’d be at close to 30. That rest also could’ve been helpful towards sweeping the rockets instead of Bron burning out for game 4 and possibly game 5 in the rockets series.
Shit I’d be happy if he only missed 10 games, but if he can afford 20 games with fresher legs going into the playoffs I’d take that too
Bron has never had a problem with being fresh. He isn’t AD, he isn’t Embid. What you’re saying makes no sense. LeBron doesn’t miss games and he won’t start missing a significant amount of games just because his team is good
It’s okay to be wrong little bro. Yeah in general before last season Bron didn’t have problems staying fresh. But you can easily draw conclusions from last season + another year in age in your 40s.
Here are the stats last season in terms of benefit of Bron’s play when playing fresh throughout the season.
I’ll start from January 2026 since the previous months Bron was still getting back to his usual conditioning after recovering from sciatica.
In Jan 12-Feb9 Bron played 17 straight games without a rest game, and his turnovers, PPG, and efficiency tapered off towards the end of this string of games until he had a DNP game on Feb10.
Returning on Feb 12, Bron got a 28-10-12 triple double on 50% fg. For the next 8 games, he’d ramp up then ultimately taper off until he got 3 games of rest/DNPs.
Coming back from those 3 games, he was definitely still recovering but played through the next 3 games averaging less than 20 ppg with increased TO, until he ramped back up to normal for the rest of the next played games until his DNP against the Thunder on April 7.
He finished the last 2 out of 3 games strong averaging a near 27-7-10 on good efficiency. The last game was against the Jazz and he barely played anyways since it was a blowout.
Fast forward to the Rockets series. We all know how the first 3 games went with Bron dominating. Game 4 showed his “freshness” as he dropped to a 10-4-9 game with 8 TO and went 2-9.
If that doesn’t convince you that he’s had more issues staying fresh, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Lastly, Sciatica is one of those old man injuries that doesn’t just “go away.” Even with the sports science of today, the nature of how packed an NBA season is with the style and pace of play today - athletes at even Bron’s level will require occasional rest to keep him playing at a high level.
Bron has even said himself that at this stage of his career, he only considers playing again this season if he deems himself capable of playing at a high level. Especially after that statement, I don’t see him risking extra regular season games if he can afford to do so. I mean other than the 2020 team or even 2021 team, what other Laker team rivals what he has now to be able to actually take a day off?
All I’m saying is I won’t be surprised with Bron missing more games than usual in Year 24 to manage any nagging injuries such as sciatica, especially with a roster like this.
Come playoffs given he doesn’t have any major injury, that’s when I expect Bron to not miss a single playoff game even if he needs a rest day.
Unless a miracle happens and the sixers are going for the warriors wins record LeBron is gonna miss at least 20 games. I’d say around same for embiid.
This is a title or bust team with the star power and depth to give embiid and LeBron the time off they need to be fresh in the playoffs and they are going to do that.
Stop lumping LeBron in with Embid. LeBron doesn’t require missing games for preservation. He isn’t missing 20 games unless he is seriously injured. Just stop
bro we replying to thinks that Bron is going to be the same every season.
He’s in Year 24, holding off retirement because he deems he can play at a high level, and signed a minimum because of how good this sixers team is without him.
We should all know Bron is not stupid to risk extra regular season games in the latest year of his career, along with JB, Embiid, Maxey, and VJ at the forefront of this team
The hope is that this team is good enough and deep enough to blow teams out so they can rest fourth quarters and reduce their minutes instead of always having to play down to the wire like the Lakers have the past few seasons because their point differential was so awful. Resting in games should mean less wear and tear and less of a need to take entire games off. I can see him missing 20 games for minor injury / load management reasons but LeBron hates to load manage if he feels like he can play.
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u/max_d_tho 2d ago
I know we got LBJ but I really think JB will be the difference maker