LeBron James will reportedly miss the rest of the exhibition season with back woes

LeBron James’ exhibition stats so far this month? Two games, 47 minutes total, 22 points, a team-leading three turnovers a game, eight rebounds and seven assists. He’s missed over two-thirds of his shots from the field, and his Cavaliers are the only winless team in the East’s exhibition run.

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Also, he’s done until the regular season starts. Likely sitting with a back injury. And good for him, because this is the best possible thing for James and his team.

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James reportedly received a shot to his lower back that will sideline him for two weeks, making sure he’ll come back in time for his team’s season opener against Chicago on Oct. 27. Jason Lloyd at the Akron Beacon Journal broke the news:

“LeBron James received an injection in his back this week, according to multiple sources, and is unlikely to play again in the preseason. James received a similar anti-inflammatory shot in January when he was shut down for two weeks and responded so well that the plan was always for him to have another one at some point, one league source said. By doing it now, James won’t miss any significant time.”

[…]

“James has dealt with back problems the last couple of years, although no one seems to think it’s a significant issue at present. His back was a little sore when he arrived at Quicken Loans Arena for Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, a game he wasn’t supposed to play in anyway, and he was feeling ill. So the team gave him the shot and sent him home.”

Cavs coach David Blatt didn’t fully rule James out for the rest of the exhibition run, but …

“We’ll see what happens at the beginning of next week,” Blatt said. “I certainly don’t expect him to play both games and I don’t know if he’ll even play one. We’ll see.”

On paper, the Cavaliers are in a rather perilous position. On the flip side of that: it’s also important to note that Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals starts exactly eight months from today. This is a haul.

Kevin Love is set to return soon to game action after a shoulder injury sidelined him last April. His minutes will be closely watched and it will take him a while to return to game speed. His celebrated backup from 2014-15, Tristan Thompson, is in the midst of a contract holdout that could seemingly outlast the 2015 calendar year. Timofey Mozgov has played well in the exhibition season but he’s noticeably slowed due to offseason knee surgery.

His backup, Anderson Varejao, is returning from an Achilles tear and sadly he may never be the same player. Point man Kyrie Irving’s return date is still unknown, and he could have to stay out for a few more months. The team’s big offseason pickup, Mo Williams, will turn 33 in December and he’s shooting 29 percent from the field. The team’s leading scorer so far is Jared Cunningham. Richard Jefferson has brought the only on-court highlights. Dissolve the team. Cancel the season.

For LeBron James to be already suffering back woes in October, just a few weeks after telling reporters that he “could definitely use a few more months off” after playing deep into June for the fifth consecutive season in 2014-15, would seem to be worrying. And though Love will be around the Cavs will look an awful lot like the thin team that relied on LeBron to a ridiculous degree during the NBA Finals last season. That would seem to put the production pressure on James in early-season months, months in which he probably needs to be coasting.

This is how it sometimes goes, though. So LeBron has to over-extend himself early on? Then Irving and Love step up as 2016 dawns and James gets to back off a little. Then perhaps he takes another two-week break around the midseason mark in time to get it all together for the season’s final weeks as they head into the postseason.

A postseason that reminded us just five months ago that as long as you have LeBron James you’ll have a chance against the very best.

The Cavaliers don’t need the top seed in the East to act as the favorite. They were without home court advantage in last year’s Conference finals and even gave up home court advantage against Chicago in the second round before moving on to the Finals. Those Bulls aren’t as proven as the Cavaliers as 2015-16 rolls around, but they’re going to mind the minutes while battling a series of injuries of their own. Atlanta will be thinner, while Washington, Milwaukee and Toronto have yet to turn the corner.

James will bum out some fans in Toronto and Cleveland as the exhibition schedule comes to an end, and he’ll probably bum out some more fans at certain intervals down the line as the Cavaliers work through 82 games. It’s the price to pay for getting to see a healthy LeBron James work when he’s needed the most.

Fans that can afford home tickets against the Pacers in October and/or March (as opposed to pricey Finals seats) may not want to hear it, but this is all about June. And in this unprecedented gig of LeBron’s, June is a million miles away.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops