Nylon Calculus: LeBron James is playing an astounding number of minutes

On Jan. 30, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost in an uninspired game against the Dallas Mavericks. LeBron James played slightly more than 37 minutes and in doing so he passed Michael Jordan in all-time minutes played. LeBron is now 21st among all players in total minutes played and he will likely pass the four ahead of him: Moses Malone, Scottie Pippen, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal, before this season is over.

Incredibly, in his 14th NBA season, LeBron is second in the league in minutes played per game. Of course, he appears as indestructible as usual, but this is still a shocking workload for a player this deep into their career.

LeBron James plays a lot of minutes per game (as seen above), he is almost never injured and his teams generally makes it far in the playoffs which means his regular season has value, keeping him on the floor as his team fights for playoff position. This also inflates his total minutes played if we combine the regular season and playoffs. The combination of those three facts have resulted in LeBron being in the top-10 of minutes played in 12 out of 14 seasons (including 2016-17). The only time that he has missed out on the top-10 was in his first two seasons, where the Cleveland Cavaliers did not make the playoffs.

Only two other players have been in top-10 in total minutes played in a season 12 or more times: Wilt Chamberlain (13) and Bill Russell (12).

During LeBron’s 14 seasons, he has played 48,813 minutes, the most of anyone over that time span, and there is a sizable gap down to No. 2 and Joe Johnson’s 41,995 minutes. The graph below compares LeBron’s minutes each season with Joe Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant (second, third and eighth in total minutes played during LeBron’s career).

None of the three can compare with LeBron in consistently playing so many minutes. Kobe had four years above LeBron and Nowitzki and Johnson each have had two, but all of them have also have had significant dips in minutes because of injury or missing the playoffs. To be fair though, especially to Dirk and Kobe, the careers of these three did not start at the same time as LeBron’s.

So let us compare him to his more contemporary peers. Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul (fourth, fifth and 22nd in minutes played during LeBron’s career):

The graph above illustrates the gap in minutes played between LeBron and all other players in LeBron’s NBA lifetime. Dwyane Wade is fourth in minutes in that time span, even though he has several seasons (2006-07, 2007-08, 2013-14, 2014-15) where the distance between him and LeBron is quite large. No one has been at the top as consistently as LeBron.

Carmelo Anthony would have rated rather favorably here, had I only counted regular season. Not above LeBron, though at least a lot closer. But the lack of playoff minutes becomes his undoing.

Looking at more recent seasons the graph below compares LeBron to some of the younger superstars. From 2009-10 until today, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Stephen Curry have been second, third and seventh in minutes played:

And again, the other players cannot compare to LeBron. Curry and Durant have both had injuries and Harden started his career out coming off the bench in OKC.

Since no player can compare to LeBron’s minutes load during his career, I have also compared his minutes per season with the leaders in total minutes played among active players:

LeBron’s pace in minutes played is far higher than any of the three others.

Remember that LeBron’s 14th season is far from over yet. Most likely, he will add around 1500 minutes of basketball before the end of the season. USA Today reported Saturday that LeBron has no intention of slowing down, as his team needs him.

Comparing LeBron to the top-four players in all-time minutes played still sets him apart:

Even though his 14th season is far from over, LeBron is still outpacing the other four players in minutes through 14 seasons.

Next: David Lee is back in business

What LeBron has been doing is unprecedented. Everyone is talking about LeBron’s minutes and how he should limit his minutes to save himself and prolong his career. He does necessarily think so himself. And we are at the point were it is hard to blame him. Though Father Time is undefeated, LeBron has been playing so many minutes for so long that he is clearly an outlier of historic proportions in this aspect of the game. As with a lot of other things, LeBron is in another stratosphere and our normal conventions do not apply.