The Clippers are contemplating starting the season with Kawhi Leonard as a reserve to manage his minutes, league sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
Leonard, who missed all of last season while recovering from a torn ACL, started both of his preseason appearances for the Clippers, averaging 16.5 minutes per contest. The five-time All-Star, two-time Defensive Player of the Year and two-time Finals MVP sustained the injury in Game 4 of L.A.’s second-round playoff series against Utah in June 2021.
The 31-year-old has a somewhat notorious reputation for missing games due to “load management,” playing no more than 60 regular season games since 2017/18. However, this situation is a bit different because a torn ACL is a very serious injury and sometimes it takes awhile for players to ramp up their conditioning and get back to game speed after missing so much time.
Still, it’s unclear what the advantage would be to bringing Leonard off the bench as opposed to starting. He has started every game he’s played since November 11, 2013, so it’s been nearly nearly nine years since he was last used as a reserve.
With Leonard and fellow star Paul George back and healthy, the Clippers are looking to improve upon last season’s 42-40 campaign that saw them miss out on the playoffs after losing both games in the play-in tournament. The Clippers face the Lakers Thursday night at 9:00pm CT on TNT for their regular season opener.
Here we go again…I’m curious how do Clippers fans feel about Kawhi!?!
Do you all not care about him sitting out and only playing so many minutes as long as he’s healthy and the Clippers are winning??
Does his whole situation bother you??
Do you just not care as long as the Clippers make a playoff run??
Do you dislike him, and want him gone??
I find myself conflicted on how I would feel about Kawhi if he were on the Bulls, so I’m genuinely just curious..
Seems to be all about Kawhi the last three or four years. Less about the team, less about anybody else and all about Mr Leonard. Maybe I’m Wrong and maybe this season will tell us more?
With George playing only roughly 30 games last year, and with Kawhi missing the entire season, I have NO earthly idea how the Clippers finished last year with a winning record of 42-40…
For the majority of last season, it was all about who the Clippers didn’t have, but I think towards the last quarter of the season guys like Reggie Jackson amd Coach Lue really started becoming the focal point of the conversation around this team..
Now, it’s all about, “well look what they did last year without them, they’ll certainly be title contenders with them.”
That’s not always the case, now expectations are higher, and they’ll have to prove they can stay healthy. Not to mention, now they’re going to have to get reintegrated with their teammates, and get that chemistry back on the court..
Either way, they’re going to be a fun team to see how everything comes together.
Agree on issues with intergration and chemistry in LAC. I would add too much of a “star” players on roster = fight over hierarchy status. They will argue (and have issues in locker room) over who will play hero ball in 4th and who will do the dirty work in 2nd and 3rd qt, as in fact team needs both, grinders and stars, to win against top teams.
According to ESPN nba analyst, Clippers and Nuggets are top 3 teams in the West.
Do you agree?
No I don’t agree. I don’t think the Denver Nuggets are as good because their bench isn’t that good.
should of stayed in Toronto could of won one more but then again now clippers are wasting alot of cash and trouble over a clown show
Maybe by the time we reach april? As of now it’s going to take both these teams with all the new players getting integrated who missed time last year?
Oops sorry I was replying to the Nuggets Clippers post above by sillivan. Apologies.
He hasn’t played in over a year, with his injury history you can’t really blame him or the team to ease him back into it. Winning early season games isn’t nearly as important as winning 16 games in the playoffs.
He injured his ACL in the playoffs right? Not last year’s playoffs, but two years ago. What’s he been doing all summer?
Is he like Shaq and taking company time to rehab or is he like Klay Thompson and working throughout the summer, and throughout every summer, getting ready?
Klay may have started when he returned but he ramped up to start out and averaged less than 30mpg. In fact he’s still on a minutes restriction.
Love his game, but playoffs are already too much of a coin flip and then you throw in his health concerns and you got reduced odds already.
If his PT is going to be uneven, including sitting out games, then it might make sense to bring him off the bench. Particularly with this group, coach and players.
With 1/4th of the league trying to lose (with league approval, it seems), I can’t see how anyone can be critical of a team for holding out an injury prone star if it increases the chance of him being healthy for the playoffs. It would be nice to try and win every game, but it’s the NBA (not its teams) that has devalued the regular season, and, after all, load management or whatever it’s called is at least in the name of winning (not draft position).
The solution is less playoff teams and a totally random draft where the #1 best team also can get the #1 pick.
The entire purpose of the draft is to ensure that bad teams get better. Yes, there needs to be some anti-tanking measures that I don’t consider myself smart enough to figure out. No, the best team should never get the top overall pick. The Celtics did that already in 2017 because the Nets FO is/was a dumpster fire, and it got them Jayson Tatum when they traded the pick to Philly. Bad teams need good picks to get better, they just shouldn’t tank for them.
Top 5 MPG > starting
“Starting” doesnt matter as much in the NBA like it does in MLB or NFL. Different concepts. Really stupid how it gets lumped in with the other two.
I would agree. Tyler Herro averaged 20 points a game off the bench and people still were disgusted by his contract because “he isnt a starter”. Same with Jordan Poole. Theres a reason the NBA has an award called Sixth Man of the Year; its because the bench is important just like the starting lineup. The Clippers are scary because they have a great starting lineup AND a great bench.
Kawhi Leonard is going to be great. He’s built for the playoffs not the regular season.
Tough as nails