CLEVELAND — The difference between a banged-up LeBron James and a fresh and rested James has been profound for the Cleveland Cavaliers this season.

That’s not in question. What is, however, is this: Are James and the Cavs prepared to take the actions necessary to keep him that way?

What lessons will James and his team take from the value of rest and monitoring wear and tear? What lessons will they take from seeing how Kobe Bryant‘s body has broken down, and from seeing how Tim Duncan‘s career and championship window have been extended into his late 30s?

The time to manage James’ short- and long-term health by putting a new focus on rest is now.

At age 30, it has never been more clear that his body is showing wear. By James’ own admission, this has been difficult to come to terms with. He and the team need to be proactive in thinking every day about not just the next playoff run but stretching his career as long as possible.

The Cavs play Tuesday night, the first of five games in seven days, the hardest stretch any team will face in any season. What would Spurs coach Gregg Popovich do with Duncan facing such a week? What should the Lakers have done with Bryant starting four or five years ago?

The Cavs and James — and it is important to mention both because it will always be a co-decision — had better start thinking critically about these moments. They are opportunities.

Between the ages of 30 and 34, Duncan had his minutes dropped by Popovich to fewer than 31 a game, and the Spurs’ coach started the process of looking for days to give him off, yanking him from some back-to-backs and certain arduous road trips. To be fair, Duncan tore his meniscus in 2000; by 2006, when Duncan was 30, Popovich already had been very careful not to overextend him during the regular seasons. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t fabulous foresight.

James doesn’t have such a preexisting condition. But he does have a back that has been bothering him for several years, and for the first time in his career he has been dealing with knee issues. The left knee that forced James to take two weeks off this season is probably going to need to be monitored for the rest of his career. There’s a chance at some point he’s going to need surgery or, at the least, a trip to Germany.

There is zero need for James to play five games in seven days in January or February ever again. It’s not worth it. And it’s not just about one game or one rough week. These things add up to hundreds of minutes, thousands of miles on the legs, and days of stress on the mind.

Last April, ESPN.com’s Tom Haberstroh illustrated how James and Kevin Durant had both played thousands of more minutes than anyone else in the NBA in the past four years. It should not be a surprise both are struggling with more health issues than ever before. To ignore this would be shortsighted, narrow-minded and even foolish.

Between the ages of 30 and 34, Bryant played 37 minutes a game. On a mission to prove he didn’t need former teammate Shaquille O’Neal, Bryant played through a host of injuries. He won some titles, too. At age 34, in the 2012-13 season, Bryant played 76 of the Lakers’ first 78 games and was averaging nearly 39 minutes a game. He averaged 45 minutes per game in the last seven games he played before he snapped his Achilles tendon after playing 45 minutes in that fateful game in April 2013.

Bryant’s career was derailed by that injury but not by that moment, because he had been barreling toward it for years. There’s no need to ask then-coach Mike D’Antoni or the Lakers organization if they have any regrets. Current coach Byron Scott certainly has regrets about playing Bryant 35 minutes a game this season with a lingering sore shoulder.

Had the Lakers been more judicious during the past five to six years with Bryant, would he be in this position today, having a third straight season ended by injury? No one knows.

But there’s a wager to be made on it and the Spurs, who have a highly performing Duncan as he’s about to turn 39, know which way they bet. The Miami Heat certainly have been watching — their management of Dwyane Wade‘s knee injuries in their “maintenance” program is modeled directly on what the Spurs have done with Duncan. No, they don’t like putting Wade on the inactive list so often and see it cost them games. But they absolutely believe it is the right decision to delay his number being raised to the rafters as long as possible.

No one wants to see less of James. Virtually every time he plays he leaves the spectators with some sort of valued memory. When schedules come out, thousands of people plan and spend heavily, counting on him to play. Networks spend millions to arrange things so he can been seen by as many people as possible as many times as possible. Making him a healthy scratch at times will not be popular.

But everyone can agree seeing Bryant break down at the end of his career has been a loss for every market and every network involved in the NBA. And no, starting to give James nights off here and there now will not guarantee the same won’t happen to him.

Yet there is zero debate about how much better a rested and healthy James has been this season for the Cavs and the league as a whole. Forgetting the Bryant and Duncan comparisons; seeing James explode through January after relatively limping through December is an open-and-shut case.

The Cavs are winning and they are developing chemistry with new players. James has found a fantastic rhythm, averaging 30.3 points in the seven games since returning from his rest, and he’s not going to want to give it up. The Cavs are 1-8 when he doesn’t play this season and 24-12 when he does. It doesn’t seem like the best time to have him sit a game. James will absolutely not want to do it.

But try to honestly build a case why James should even get on a plane at midnight Friday to play a fourth game in five nights in Minnesota on Saturday when he could take the weekend off at home instead. Other than feeling like he let down some Timberwolves fans, there isn’t one.

The Cavs have a stretch at the end of February and into March where they play seven games in 10 days. There’s no reason for James to play in all of those, either, no matter where the team is in the playoff-seeding race.

Simply, at this point in his career there is never a bad time to take a rest. It is always a good decision. James adopted this in the past four years when it came to the playoffs, routinely taking games off at the end of the season to make sure he was fresh for the postseason. That worked out pretty well considering he has been to four consecutive Finals.

As a businessman with a constant eye on his brand, James is always working on multiyear entertainment projects, monitoring designs on his shoes years in advance and investing long-term in companies.

The time has come for him to treat his basketball career the same way.