Lakers News: Insider Projects Comeback Window For LeBron James

The All-Star small forward has been out since February 28th.

During an extensive conversation that's well worth a listen in full, The Athletic's Los Angeles Lakers beat reporter, Jovan Buha, spoke with Michael Scotto of HoopsHype for the latter's aptly-named The HoopsHype Podcast about a variety of LA-centric topics, from Rui Hachimura's anticipated new contract with the team to the fate of LeBron James this season.

The 19-time All-Star has been sidelined since February 28th with a loosely-defined right foot tendon injury. Buha had some interesting insights into figuring out a comeback window timeline for the ailing superstar.

"It’s sounding like if he does [rejoin the team on the floor], it’s probably going to be the last week or so of the regular season," Buha said. "You hear conflicting things. This has been one of the tougher things to dig on. The Lakers have played this very close to the vest. There hasn’t been much out there on it." 

"A couple of notable developments this week were he returned to the team without the walking boot over the weekend," Buha continued. "In between quarters, he was dribbling the ball and shooting layups. It was stationary but didn’t look like a guy who was in a walking boot, limping, and arrived in one of those scooters. He’s already ahead of schedule from that perspective. At shootaround in New Orleans, he was shooting free throws and moving around. The plan is to re-evaluate him next week, which will be about 3.5 weeks since the injury."

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