After it was recently announced that LeBron James would miss the start of the Lakers‘ season with sciatica on his left side, there has now been an update in his timeline, courtesy of ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter video link).
Charania says that James and the Lakers are targeting a mid-November season debut, but that LeBron will not rush back prematurely.
“A source told me tonight that LeBron would be taking a patient approach with this rehab from nerve injury,” Charania said. “The ramp-up process for this will be a lot of basketball-shape conditioning work.”
Charania notes that James started dealing with the nerve issue during a workout at the end of July or beginning of August, which impeded his usual preseason training ramp-up.
Charania points to October 30 as a key date for James to be re-evaluated, but adds it’s expected that he will need at least a few weeks after that to return to a conditioning level that he feels comfortable with before taking the floor again.
James, who will turn 41 in December, has played at least 75 games, including playoffs, in each of the last two seasons, after not having reached those numbers since the 2017/18 season.