During the beginning of the 2022-23 season, it was clear that LeBron James was exerting more energy than he would like in his 20th NBA season just trying to keep the Los Angeles Lakers afloat.

When Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka made moves at the trade deadline, it helped lower James’ workload but, unfortunately, he tore a tendon in his right foot injury on Feb. 27 in a comeback win against the Dallas Mavericks.

The 38-year-old would miraculously return before the playoffs but clearly did not look 100% and hinted at potential retirement after getting eliminated in the Western Conference Finals. However, he is returning for his 21st season and head coach Darvin Ham spoke to trying to manage James this upcoming season at Thursday’s press conference.

“That goes right into what’s been said thus far in this press conference so far, the continuity of building a well-balanced roster,” Ham said. “It makes us more efficient in the way we manage him and he’s great at managing himself, all the resources he pours into making sure that he’s not only available at a high level.

Now that we have, top to bottom, what we feel like is a highly, highly balanced, skilled, athletic, younger team of guys who logged a ton of NBA minutes, we can surround both he and AD with these players who are coming in eager to contribute, eager to show that they can impact winning. That’s going to allow us to be able to be more efficient with his game-to-game minutes, the big picture, month-to-month, different sections in the calendar.

“He was grandfathered in by the rest rules so I was happy to see that. So that’s going to help as well. But Bron, he does a great job taking care of himself. And the team that’s around him now, the pieces that we have in places, those guys are going to step up and do a lot of heavy lifting early.”

While having added depth to the roster with certainly help the four-time champion, Pelinka shared that James is still preparing the only way he knows how, despite the amount of mileage he has as a player.

“I would answer that with one word: preparation,” Pelinka said when asked what James has been doing to get ready for his 21st season. “It’s staggering for a player who has 20 years under the hood already and is preparing for 21 like he’s a rookie. He’s been doing 6 a.m. workouts. Probably been in our building as much as any player this offseason. Been in the weight room as much as any player.

“Any team LeBron’s played for, it’s been pretty uniform that his work sets the tone. There has been nothing but an increase in seeing that here. To me, it’s let’s be about it, let’s not talk about it. He’s definitely been about it this offseason. That really puts a spirit in our entire group to see him preparing that detailed and working that hard.”

It seems clear that James has defied Father Time so far and seems to be re-energized after a physically and mentally demanding previous season.

After getting swept, it seems that James is ready to get back to it and bring another championship to L.A. this season.

Ham expresses optimism in Anthony Davis and new-look Lakers team

James’ co-star Anthony Davis had a dominant defensive postseason and seems to be working on finding his shooting stroke to add to his offense this offseason. Ham noted that he is still optimistic about Davis despite some offensive struggles and the moves the Lakers made this summer.