LeBron James (old) out for remainder of Lakers preseason

The Lakers will be without LeBron James on Thursday as he will sit out against the Suns due to being old.

In recent years, the Lakers have lacked transparency regarding injuries. New head coach JJ Redick might be changing that.

Ahead of Thursday’s preseason game in Phoenix against the Suns, JJ Redick revealed that LeBron James would be out. In lieu of providing some injury that was definitely not real, he just told it like it is.

LeBron’s out because he’s old.

Honestly, fair. Anyone this deep into a career should be allowed to list that as a legitimate reason for missing games.

During the broadcast of Tuesday’s game on TNT, Jared Greenberg reported that the Lakers were shutting down LeBron for the preseason.

The Lakers’ preseason schedule did them no favors. On top of having back-to-back games to close their exhibition schedule, it was also part of three games in four nights after playing against Las Vegas on Tuesday. AND on top of all that, all the games are on the road as Crypto.com Arena is undergoing renovations.

It was pretty much a given that LeBron, among other starters, would not be playing both games in this final stretch. The only surprise is that the starters, presumably, won’t get one more run together this preseason unless the non-LeBron and Rui Hachimura starters play both sides of the back-to-back, which feels unlikely.

As for Rui, there generally isn’t much to put into preseason injuries, especially in the abovementioned circumstances. Reaves missed time earlier in the preseason and returned just fine, so, for now, it can be chalked up to the Lakers being cautious. Only if it continue to the regular season should it be a worry.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.