Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James wants himself, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving to play less minutes. James, who's averaging the third-most minutes per game this season, admitted he believes the playing time for Cleveland's Big Three "has to come down."
Cleveland began to find their rhythm in November, winning four straight games before losing Monday night to the Denver Nuggets, 106-97. James played for 41 minutes Monday and after practice the next day, he acknowledged he would like to see his minutes reduced.
"I wouldn't mind it," James said, via ESPN. "I think we have to give our guys on the bench more of an opportunity. I looked at a stat and myself, Kyrie and Kevin are three of the top five guys in the league in minutes per game and that has to come down."
James is averaging 39.1 minutes per game, putting him third in the league in terms of most minutes played. Behind James, Irving is averaging 38.4 minutes per game and Love is averaging 37.0.
"For me, I don't want to do that all year," said James. "Obviously right now it's difficult because we're trying to find a groove, we're trying to find a rhythm and we're trying to implement something that you don't want to shortcut it, but at the same time you want to be smart about it. So, I don't mind giving a few of my minutes up just to help the team, to help my minutes go down. I think it would be for the best."
First-year coach David Blatt spoke last week about considering the idea of decreasing James's playing time, but James has still played at least 40 minutes in seven of the Cavaliers' first nine games.
