Forget No. 1 Seed, Resting LeBron James Should Be Priority No. 1 for Cavaliers
CLEVELAND — For all the competition he's faced over 13 years in the NBA, LeBron James' biggest foe may be his own body.
At 6'8" and 250 pounds of lean muscle, James physically dominates opponents with his rare blend of strength, speed and athleticism. But at age 31, with unprecedented mileage on his body, some of those gifts are beginning to fade.
Yet he and the Cavs have little interest in taking a breather. James has only missed two games this season, each for regular maintenance during back-to-backs. As we saw in his recent Instagram post, he's even spending scheduled off days in the gym.
Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue wants the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference rather than rest for James, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com.
"I talked to our team about the most important thing right now is to try and get home-court advantage for the East," Lue said. "Toronto's playing great basketball, I think they're three games behind us. If we can get a little bit of a cushion, then we can try to rest LeBron a lot. Just try to get him a couple games here and there, try to take the wear and tear off his body."
If Lue wants to wrap up the East first, it may take some time. Toronto Raptors are just 2.5 games behind Cleveland with a 41-20 record. The Raptors have 21 contests left to play, while Cleveland has 20 games to go.
The Cavaliers still have six more back-to-backs remaining on their schedule, including 14 games by the end of March.
While Lue and former coach David Blatt have done a nice job of limiting James' minutes (a career-low 35.9 per game), the 13-year-veteran's average miles per game, speed and usage have remained similar to those in previous years.
But pushing James now for an extra Eastern Conference Finals home game is foolish. The Cavs will likely be a top-two seed in any case. Home-court advantage sounds great (the Cavs are 27-6 at Quicken Loans Arena), but history has shown James doesn't need a No. 1 seed to reach—and even win—the Finals.
Why Rest Matters for James
Of the six career trips James has made to the championship round, his team finished first in the regular season once (2012-2013 Miami Heat).
Last year, the Cavaliers finished second to the Atlanta Hawks but swept them in the Eastern Conference Finals even without Kevin Love. Prior to Cleveland's playoff run, James missed a career-high 13 games while resting nagging back and knee issues. He took eight straight contests off from Dec. 2014 to Jan. 2015, receiving an anti-inflammatory injection to his back in the process.
Cleveland stumbled to a 1-7 mark during that stretch, but the break brought life back to James' legs that set up a long run into June.
James' game clearly benefits from sustained periods of rest. Not only do his shooting percentages rise dramatically, but LeBron's plus-minus rating is nearly six times greater between zero and three-plus days off. Even playing with one day of rest means a jump in his scoring and rebounding and a plus-minus that more than doubles.
Having struggled with his outside shooting all season, James needs his endurance now more than ever.
There's also a historical component at play.
Assuming James really wants to play until he's 40, he could have as many as nine years left in the NBA. LeBron is already 45th in league history with 37,920 career regular-season minutes. His playoff mileage is on pace to be the NBA's best of all time. At 7,561 minutes of postseason court time, James is now No. 7 overall, having surpassed players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Bill Russell.
This is both an accomplishment and a curse. Long playoff runs mean short summers and often contribute to tired legs.
James' mileage matters now, and tomorrow. The Cavs owe it to LeBron and Cleveland to closely monitor his minutes for the remainder of the season and his career.
Greg Swartz is the Cleveland Cavaliers lead writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @CavsGregBR.
All quotes obtained firsthand unless cited. Stats via Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com and are accurate as of March 8. Charts are accurate as of March 6.
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