Is there a secret behind James’ injury? The Lakers’ Doncic era begins early

One day, the Los Angeles Lakers will face a moment without LeBron James, and the question of "when will it come" has always lingered over the team, leaving them in a dilemma between "sprinting all out" and "thoroughly embracing the post-LeBron era."

The unexpected opportunity to acquire Luka Doncic last season put the team on a completely new path. James' continued presence in the lineup is no longer the team's guiding light.

However, the news on Thursday was still shocking - the 40-year-old star will miss at least the next three to four weeks due to a right sciatic nerve problem.

First of all, it is the word "at least" that is worrisome. Although not explicitly used in the team's official statement, the statement mentioned that James will "re-evaluate" in three to four weeks, which strongly hints that the injury time may be longer.

Secondly, combined with what we heard privately and publicly about James' health management plan before the start of the season - most notably league sources revealed that James will adopt a different strategy in the 23rd preseason of his career, with the goal of keeping him in top physical condition at the end of the season rather than at the beginning. Based on this information, the Lakers will almost certainly take a conservative approach to James' recovery process; that could mean he needs more time to recover or adjust (or both) after a three- to four-week evaluation period.

Four weeks of injury, plus a week of adjustment period, may mean that James will have to wait until early November to return. In a way, this forces the Lakers to stick to their original plan - something the team has struggled to stick to in the past when it comes to James. For years, the coaching staff has been talking about playing time limits and training camp burden reduction, but often by the seventh game of the season, James has another 40 minutes of playing time in a single game.

This injury may also affect James' record of being selected to the NBA's All-NBA Team for the 22nd consecutive time, because according to the "at least 65 games" rule required by the league's selection award, this absence will consume the number of games he is allowed to miss.

The Lakers will likely need to rely on some combination of Rui Hachimura, Jake Laravia and Jared Vanderbilt to fill the huge void left by the NBA's all-time scoring leader. None of these players will be asked to do what James does; but in the absence of the star, they will need to do more and play more minutes in the areas they are good at.

Vanderbilt participated in training camp healthy for the first time in two years this summer. He performed well in the early preseason of this season, providing the Lakers with much-needed defensive toughness and versatility.

The same is true for Rivers Jr. In the past two seasons, when the Lakers lacked James or Doncic, and even as early as Anthony Davis, he performed well as the main offensive point. He was expected to play a major offensive role this season, and now he'll start the season as the team's second-most important playmaker.

In his preseason debut, analysts were deeply impressed by Rivers' performance as the main attack point. It suddenly becomes more critical that Doncic needs to take on more of that role in his non-playing minutes.

However, the biggest impact of this incident is that it gives the Lakers a fuller opportunity to fully embrace the reality they chose for themselves in February: Doncic is the core that drives everything about the team. When healthy, Doncic is one of the players in the NBA who can best improve a team's record, even if the lineup is not completely built around him. He's good enough to handle any challenge, including the early part of the season when the Lakers have a shaky schedule.

Of course, in the long run, this is his team. Regardless of whether the Lakers have made it clear or not, it is James who has been more in need of adjusting to playing around Doncic, not the other way around.

It’s just that this new reality shouldn’t have arrived so quickly, especially not in the opening game. But now that he's been injured, the Lakers are firmly on the road to their future.

LeBron James, whenever he recovers, needs to work hard to keep up with the team.

(Text/Kong Yang)