Los Angeles Lakers To Start Luka Dončić, Gabe Vincent, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Deandre Ayton While LeBron James Is Out

The Los Angeles Lakers will start Luka Dončić, Gabe Vincent, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton while NBA legend LeBron James is out.

James will miss the start of the season because of sciatica on his right side. He could make his season debut in mid-November, according to NBA insider Shams Charania of ESPN.

“I’m told that the Lakers and LeBron are looking at around mid-November as a realistic debut for him,” Charania said. “And so October 30 would be the earliest that the Lakers would be officially re-evaluating LeBron James, but it is expected he will need at least a few weeks after that point. A source told me tonight that LeBron will be taking a patient approach with this rehab from nerve injury.

“And so the ramp-up process for this will be a lot of basketball shape conditioning work because remember, as I reported last week on NBA Today, LeBron James first suffered this nerve issue during an on-court workout in late July, early August. He wasn’t able to have that normal LeBron James offseason that we’re accustomed to. And as superhuman as he’s been throughout his NBA career, he is turning 41 in December and he is in Year 23. So that’s the timeline on LeBron James, at some point in November, likely around that mid-November range.”

James is the oldest active player in the NBA. He turns 41 in December and has been in the league since 2003.

The leading scorer in NBA history, James has one year left on his contract with the Lakers. He becomes an unrestricted free agent next offseason for the first time since 2018.

A future Hall of Famer, James appeared in 70 games last season. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.6 blocks and finished sixth in MVP voting and made the All-NBA Second Team.