Los Angeles Lakers: What if LeBron James was just playing hurt?

The Los Angeles Lakers had a year to forget, but what if LeBron James wasn’t himself for more than half of it? Have we all overreacted?

When LeBron James went down with a hamstring injury on Christmas Day, there’s no question that the entire season changed for the Los Angeles Lakers. They quickly went from an overachieving team, just 2.5 games back of the top spot in the West, to an underachieving LeBron-led team that will miss the playoffs.

LeBron only missed 18 games after his injury, but never quite looked like the same player. Which led many to believe that LeBron was at the beginning of the end and that this entire Lakers experiment is now a mistake.

However, did we overreact to this all? Maybe LeBron simply isn’t healthy to carry the Lakers and only came back to try and be the hero that Los Angeles needs?

Well, that’s interesting considering what made the rounds via social media over the weekend when Complex Sports came across a post that suggest that LeBron probably should’ve never returned to the Lakers lineup. And, in fact, should’ve been sidelined for much more time than he was.

This is interesting, if nothing else. However, if this is in fact true, perhaps LeBron’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.

His stats don’t tell the entire story, but his overall shooting percentage is down a bit since his return from injury and there’s no question that his defensive effort has definitely taken a bit of a hit.

We’ve quickly jumped to a conclusion that isn’t fair to LeBron or the Lakers. They were hampered by many injuries this season, including the one to Lonzo Ball that perhaps hurt the team even more than initially thought.

There’s no question that this is a season to forget for the Lakers and that it will go down as one of the biggest disappointments in LeBron’s legendary career. But, perhaps we should pump the breaks on the end of LeBron. Injuries happen, and maybe he simply wasn’t in the right shape to come back as soon as he did.

Before we jump to conclusions, let’s wait and see how the off-season and next year unfolds for the Lakers. I know it may not be the popular take to have, but what if we were all wrong?