Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue wants to rest LeBron James this season and plans to reduce his minutes. James is still confident that he can win MVP this season and cites back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry as the reason why. From ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
“No,” James said Saturday when asked if he was concerned that planned rest could affect his MVP case. “Because Steph played 31 minutes a game and he won the MVP.”
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James is tied with Wilt Chamberlain for the third-most MVPs in league history with four.
A reporter suggested that James could enter into even more elite company with a fifth.
“So, I’m not elite?” James quipped.
Another reporter gave it back to James, arguing that of course he knows the names of the people who have won five.
“I do,” James admitted.
Those players, of course, are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with six MVPs, and Michael Jordan and Bill Russell, who have five apiece.
Not to go all #WellActually on LeBron, but he was slightly off on Curry’s minutes from last season. James was pretty close; Curry played 32.6 minutes per game.
Lue would not reveal exactly how many minutes he plans on playing James for this season:
While Lue wouldn’t target a specific number of minutes for James after he averaged a career-low 35.6 minutes per game last year — “I’m not telling you,” Lue said — he admitted that he and James have discussed how they can juggle rest with still being able to sufficiently showcase his abilities during the regular season.
“We’ve talked about it,” Lue said. “He understands that we want to keep his minutes down, and when there’s games where it makes sense to take off, we’re going to take those games off. We’re being smart about the situation. We have one goal in mind, and that’s winning a championship. So, accolades, personal accolades, they come later.”
