LeBron James Says Draymond Green Is Right About Playing Too Many Minutes

On Wednesday, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green told Sam Amick of USA Today he would be concerned with the amount of minutes LeBron James was being asked to play early in the season if he were a Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

James is currently leading the NBA in minutes per game at 38.1.

On Thursday, James agreed.

"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."

The Cavaliers have needed every minute from James, however. The team is dealing with injuries to Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose and Tristan Thompson. They've also started slowly (8-7) due to a lackluster defense and the need to adjust to a bevy of new players after undergoing significant roster turnover this offseason.

That has forced the 32-year-old James to already log six games of 40 or more minutes this season.

"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.'"

James has been superb in the process, averaging 28.3 points, 8.7 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game. But at some point the Cavs will need to reduce his workload.

"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.

Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue also noted Monday that James was being given a major workload so he could play him back into shape after missing training camp and all but one preseason game. James told Vardon he's back in game shape, however.