LeBron James and the LA Lakers will return to action on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first time since their 2024 NBA Playoffs first-round exit. However LeBron James will not suit up for the Lakers in their first preseason game .
Earlier, Coach JJ Redick announced that the plan is to play his superstar player on Wednesday but James is now ruled out from playing Friday's contest against the Timberwolves, however he can still play on Sunday's against the Phoenix Suns.
It's a preseason game, so Redick initially planned to play James for one half at best, preferably with the starting unit or the nine-man rotation he intends to start the season with to gauge if the team is picking up Redick's schemes well before the season.
LeBron James will have a slightly different role than what he had under Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham, too. JJ Redick has planned to play him off the ball more and shoot more from 3-point range. Throughout his career, James has been the primary decision-maker on offense and shot a relatively lower volume from long range.
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It will be intriguing to see what that looks like when James steps on court for his first action under Redick in later games.
LeBron James says it's unfair to place expectations on Lakers
LeBron James isn't a fan of the LA Lakers having expectations set ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season. He deemed it unfair since the LA is still getting a feel of this new system under JJ Redick, which is much different from what other coaches have presented during James' Lakers tenures.
"I don't have any expectations, and that's unfair to put any expectations on us right now," James said on Tuesday (via The Athletic's Jovan Buha).
"The only thing that we can count on each other is how we come to practice and come to work every day. And trust the process and get better every day. And that's what it's about."
While the Lakers altered their entire staff and placed faith in a rookie coach, they haven't done much to upgrade their roster. That raises questions about the team's ceiling, especially against teams they don't match up well against.
Nevertheless, the early impressions of Redick's detail-oriented approach seem promising, and if those plans are executed, the Lakers could exceed expectations to begin the year.
Timberwolves Nation! You can check out the latest Minnesota Timberwolves Schedule and dive into the Timberwolves Depth Chart for NBA Season 2024-25.