Los Angeles Lakers: Coach Frank Vogel’s most challenging decisions

Load management

Now, I just mentioned that it is imperative to keep Anthony Davis happy. This goes without saying that it is a necessity to keep LeBron James happy as well.

But should this come at the expense of the Los Angeles Lakers record?

LeBron was heavily criticized for taking games off due to the new “load management” trend, which seemed to be a fancy way of LeBron saying he is sore, wants rest, and wants to avoid wearing himself out come playoff time.

But everyone saw what happened to the Lakers when LeBron was not on the court—after overachieving and with a fourth seed in the playoff picture, the Lakers took a drastic drop to out of the playoffs when LeBron got injured.

Anthony Davis has never been the most reliant player when it comes to not missing games, and can be expected to miss close to 15 games next season (if his averages from his career continue), and may even want to take a couple off for load management as well.

If LeBron and Davis were to both miss around 15 games, where would that leave the Lakers?

With such a deep Western Conference, and legitimately seven teams competing to win the West, every game is that much more important. The Lakers are realistically an ankle sprain to LeBron or Davis away from being in jeopardy of missing the playoffs once again.

At the end of the day, wins are going to help Vogel to keep his job. While it might tick off LeBron, Vogel will most likely try to limit load management for him, and will probably not let Davis take any games off for load management.

First, the Lakers need to secure a playoff spot. Then, they can take a few games off before the playoffs start to get their bodies right.