The Cleveland Cavaliers came up two games short of an NBA championship this past season, with an overworked LeBron James wheezing to the finish line while an injured Kyrie Irving watched from the sidelines with a fractured knee cap.
James and Irving were the two biggest reasons the Cavs were where they were at season's end, and both ranked in the top five in minutes per game during the regular season – Irving third with 36.4 and James fifth at 36.1.
Things ramped up even further for James in the postseason, where he clocked in 42.2 minutes a night across 20 games, while Irving struggled to stay on the floor due to a litany of injuries including the eventual season-ending knee fracture.
As a result, the Cavs are planning to scale back both James' and Irving's minutes for the upcoming season, according to Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Irving is coming off knee surgery and a season in which he played 700 more minutes than any other in his career. As Pluto notes, the biggest reason Cleveland decided to sign point guard Mo Williams in the offseason was to provide Irving with some additional relief, and along with the re-signed Matthew Dellavedova, they've put together a reliable reserve tandem at the one.
James, meanwhile, is now on the wrong side of 30 and blew past the career 40,000-minute mark (regular season and playoffs) last year. He's played 107 playoff games in the last five seasons. Though he remained an all-around force throughout the Cavs' arduous playoff run this spring, his cratering shooting efficiency (career-worst true shooting percentage of 48.7, compared to his career playoff percentage of 56.5) reflected his fatigue.
- with h/t to PBT
