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Johnson cautioned against the dangers of
placing too much of a workload on James and following the
Cleveland Cavaliers' blueprint. The former star point guard and
current Lakers executive spoke Thursday during an interview on
SiriusXM NBA Radio.
"We are trying to make sure that we watch his minutes but also
that we don't run everything through him because now it is
Cleveland all over again and we don't want that," Johnson said.
"We want to get up and down."
James is no stranger to heavy workloads. However, he will turn
34 in December, and the Lakers want to keep him as fresh as
possible for the duration of the four-year deal that he signed
during the offseason.
Johnson said the team followed several key indicators to measure
James' workload.
"Basically minutes, trying to make sure we don't overplay him
and then also usage of the ball in his hands," Johnson said. "We
got a lot of ballhandlers so we feel we won't overuse him in
terms of his ballhandling and also every play has to run through
him. I think we got proven scorers -- Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram
-- and then when you have two point guards like (Lonzo) Ball and
(Rajon) Rondo, we don't have to have LeBron having the ball in
his hands all the time."
The Lakers have won 10 of their past 14 games after a 104-96
victory over the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night.
"We're playing up and down," Johnson said. "We look good one
minute or two quarters and then we don't look good the next two
quarters. So we haven't been consistent yet. I think they are
still learning how to play with one another and trying to adapt
to (coach Luke Walton's) system.
"I've always said that in January we will look better and I
still think that is going to happen. Tyson Chandler has added to
our team because we defensively we needed a defensive-minded
backup center to JaVale (McGee). ... We still haven't come
together. Once we do that, we will be a really good team."
--Field Level Media
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