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Celtics Notes: Rivers, Tatum, Brown, Irving

November 20th, 2019 at 7:25pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Celtics are off to the best start in the East, and even Clippers coach Doc Rivers has noticed how much better the atmosphere surrounding the team has been, writes Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald. Rivers, whose team hosts the Celtics tonight, attributes the difference to personnel changes.

“Last year you had Gordon (Hayward) and Kyrie (Irving) both coming back from being out,” Rivers said. “Gordon hadn’t played the whole year before, and Kyrie hadn’t played in a while either, so they hadn’t really played together. And they just never could get their traction. The rest of it, I stay out of. I’ll let y’all deal with that.”

Rivers was referring to locker room differences that sabotaged a team that entered the season as a favorite to reach the NBA Finals. He noted that coach Brad Stevens seems much happier on the sidelines this year.

“It’s a great lesson for all of us. Chemistry is so important,” Rivers said. “Chemistry and youth, you know, they had both going at them. They were expecting guys in their second year to just take over, and sometimes that takes a little while. It’s just good to see them playing well now.”

There’s more from Boston:

The Celtics have been enjoying success with smaller lineups, but that might not work in the playoffs against Joel Embiid and the Sixers or other tall teams like the Bucks and Raptors, states Brian Windhorst of ESPN. A source tells Windhorst that Boston won’t offer its core players in any deal, including Marcus Smart and Hayward, who have been mentioned as trade possibilities before. Outside of their top five, the only players making more than $4MM are centers Daniel Theis and Enes Kanter, which becomes challenging for matching salaries.
President of basketball operations Danny Ainge addressed the possibility of adding another big man in an interview with Bulpett. “It’s always about who,” Ainge said. “It’s not, like, how tall they are. It’s not like you can just go find any seven-foot guy and put him out there and all of a sudden you’re going to be better. It depends on who that is and whether they’re better than Marcus Smart guarding the center. So I don’t worry so much about that. I mean, obviously we have stars at every other position and we really don’t have stars at our big positions. So everybody thinks that that’s what we need to do, but it all depends on who that is.”
Roster changes have allowed Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to expand their roles, giving the Celtics two big wings that most teams can’t match up with, observes Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer.
Celtics fans may not get a chance to welcome Irving back in his first scheduled game in Boston since leaving in free agency, tweets Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Irving missed his third straight game tonight with a shoulder impingement, and Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson refused to speculate if he will be healthy enough for next Wednesday.

Paul George Talks 2017 Trade Request, Teaming Up With Kawhi

November 20th, 2019 at 3:56pm CST by Luke Adams

After sitting out the Clippers‘ last three games due to a left knee contusion, Kawhi Leonard will suit up tonight against Boston, marking the first time that Leonard and Paul George will play together for the franchise, per Ohm Youngmisuk and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

For George, it will be the culmination of what has been a years-long desire to team up with Leonard, as he tells Youngmisuk in a separate ESPN article. According to George, when he requested a trade out of Indiana in 2017, the Lakers were widely believed to be his desired landing spot, but he also had interest in being sent to the Spurs, who still had Kawhi on their roster at the time.

“I wanted to be traded to San Antonio,” George told Youngmisuk. “We wanted to go to San Antonio first, and we didn’t make that happen.”

A source confirms to ESPN that the Spurs and Pacers talked at the time, but San Antonio lacked the assets necessary to make a move for George. The Lakers ultimately passed too, since they were reluctant to surrender too many assets for a player they thought they might be able to sign in free agency, writes Youngmisuk. George was eventually dealt to Oklahoma City, but still hoped to team up with Leonard at some point down the road.

“Since that moment, we were trying to pair up with one another,” George said. “We were trying to make it work. [After being traded to the Thunder] I had obligations that I wanted to come back to Oklahoma and give it another shot. … And then I felt that I needed to move on, I needed to go in another direction and I needed to at that point do what I wanted to do my whole career.”

About four or five days before news broke this summer that the Clippers had reached deals to acquire George and sign Leonard, Kawhi reached out to PG13 to see if the time was finally right to try to play together. Although it took another trade request from George, the two star forwards did ultimately end up on the same roster in Los Angeles. Now, they’ll take the court together as teammates for the first time.

“Just seems like it was destined,” George said over the summer. “We were supposed to play together.”

Pacific Notes: Thibodeau, Poole, LBJ, Carter

November 19th, 2019 at 11:09pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Tom Thibodeau has been attending Clippers‘ practices, Mark Medina of USA Today passes along (Twitter link). The former Timberwolves coach, who has a strong relationship with head coach Doc Rivers from their time together in Boston, has even attended a couple of the team’s load management meetings and “loved it,” according to Rivers.

Here’s more the Pacific Division:

Jordan Poole is going through a rough stretch with the Warriors, as Monte Poole of NBC Sports writes. Golden State is being patient with the shooting guard because…well, the team has to be. “There is no somebody else right now,” coach Steve Kerr recently said. “That’s the issue. We’re throwing guys into the fire.”
Lakers star LeBron James is passing to Anthony Davis more than he ever has to any teammate, Bryan Kalbrosky of Hoops Hype. Entering the day (per NBA.com), 23.4% of LBJ’s passes have gone to AD.
Jevon Carter was a bright spot for the Suns early in the season, but now the point guard is playing a reduced role, Gina Mizell of The Athletic explains. Carter saw just eight minutes of action during the three games leading up to Monday’s loss to Boston where Ricky Rubio sat out.

Rivers And Wallace Rave Over Ex-Clipper SGA

November 18th, 2019 at 11:19pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Ahead of tonight’s ongoing tilt against the Thunder, Clippers power forward Patrick Patterson reminisced about his two injury-plagued years logged in Oklahoma City. In speaking with The Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto, Patterson had a laundry list of causes for the Thunder’s underwhelming 2018/19 season. “I don’t think it was just one thing,” Patterson reflected. “Coaching staff, not everyone on the same page from the heads up top to the players on the bottom. Effort on the players’ part. Focus, playing together, playing good solid defense with communication. We missed a lot of shots.” Patterson’s candor on the team is refreshing to see. He continued, “It’s pretty much everyone that was within the organization’s fault.”
On the other side of the trade that landed Patterson in Los Angeles, former Clippers teammates and coaches of Clipper-turned-Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gave SGA rave reviews before tonight’s tipoff. The Oklahoman’s Maddie Lee reports that LA coach Doc Rivers had this to say about his former point guard: “He’s the greatest kid… I don’t know if I’ve had a more favorite young player, like, he’s the best.” Atlanta guard Tyrone Wallace also raved about his former running mate. “Everybody loved Shai,” Wallace said. “It was one of those things, I think a lot of fans were kind of upset (that he was traded).”

“New Shoulders” Help Paul George Set Clippers Records

November 17th, 2019 at 9:02am CST by Arthur Hill

Two games into his Clippers career, Paul George is putting up record-setting numbers and confirming the high expectations that have surrounded the team since July, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

Making his home debut with the franchise last night, George scored 37 points in 20 minutes in a rout of the Hawks. Afterward, he credited a pair of offseason surgeries that fixed his damaged shoulders.

“I got [a] new shoulder,” George said. “I can’t say nothing else to that: I got new shoulders. And they haven’t been this healthy in a long time.”

George went under the knife in May shortly after the Thunder were eliminated from the playoffs, as doctors fixed a partially torn tendon in his right shoulder. A second operation a month later repaired a partial tear in his left labrum. The Clippers have brought him along slowly since acquiring him in a July trade that sealed Kawhi Leonard‘s decision to join the organization. George didn’t take the court until Thursday, but quickly showed he was worth the wait.

He scored 33 points at New Orleans, giving him 70 in a combined 44 minutes. That’s the highest total for any player in his first two games with the Clippers, and last night’s 37-point performance is the most by anyone making his Clippers home debut. George believes he could have done more if he weren’t on a minutes limit.

“It could have been my first 50(-point game),” he told reporters. “That’s just how I felt, but … I’m a confident player. It wasn’t more so a confidence (thing) by me saying I’m back. It’s just a statement. I’m just happy to be back to this game.”

George still hasn’t played alongside Leonard, who has turned in several impressive performances while his fellow star was recuperating. Leonard sat out the past two games with a left knee contusion, which coach Doc Rivers called a day-to-day issue. The league might get its first look at the new tandem tomorrow night when L.A. hosts Oklahoma City.

Kabengele And Walton Recalled From G League

November 14th, 2019 at 8:57pm CST by clarkcrum

The Clippers have recalled both center Mfiondu Kabengele and guard Derrick Walton Jr. from their G League affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers, the team’s official PR account tweeted out this afternoon. The pair was assigned on Tuesday.

Latest On NBA’s Load Management Dilemma

November 13th, 2019 at 5:10pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA sent a memo to all 30 organizations this week instructing teams not to use the phrase “load management” to describe an injury, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today details in a series of tweets. According to the NBA’s memo, “load management” is a permissible description of a player’s absence only if he’s missing a game due to rest under the league’s resting policy.

The Hawks, who had been listing Chandler Parsons as out due to “load management” during the first few weeks of the season, adjusted their approach on Tuesday, according to Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal Constitution (Twitter link). Parsons’ new designation was “injury management (bilateral knees).” We can probably expect the Clippers to make a similar change to Kawhi Leonard‘s injury-report description the next time he sits.

While the NBA’s latest request may seem arbitrary or semantic, it reflects what a delicate subject load management has become for the league. It’s one of the “most debated, least understood” issues in basketball today, according to ESPN’s Kevin Pelton and Kevin Arnovitz, who go into detail on the science and the goals behind load management programs.

“It is rare to find a sports scientist or performance specialist who believes that the NBA season doesn’t require some attention to load management to assure that a player has a chance to be at peak performance in the postseason,” Pelton and Arnovitz write. However, the ESPN duo acknowledges that while teams have more data points available to them than ever, interpreting that data “is still an art” rather than a hard science.

As load management continues to be a popular topic of discussion in the basketball world, here are a few more items related to the phenomenon:

Ethan Strauss of The Athletic surveyed executives, coaches, and players around the NBA in an attempt to determine the best fixes for the load management problem and received a variety of responses. Reducing the amount of games in a season or stretching the season to create fewer back-to-back sets was the most popular answer in Strauss’ survey. One agent also suggested teams should make an effort to rest players during non-national TV games and make their plans clear as soon as they know them.
WarnerMedia chairman Jeff Zucker said this week that he’d like to see the NBA be more proactive in addressing “load management” games that coincide with national TV broadcasts. (Twitter links via Ben Fischer of SportsBusiness Journal). “I think the league has some influence over teams and i would like them to exert that influence,” Zucker said. TNT falls under the WarnerMedia umbrella, so Zucker obviously has a vested interest in stars suiting up for marquee games.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban came out strongly in favor of load management this week, calling it “the best thing to ever happen to the league,” as Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe tweets. While fans may be frustrated to see star players sitting in regular season games, Cuban argues that it increases the chances of keeping those stars healthy for the most important games in the spring. “You actually get more of your stars [in the playoffs],” Cuban said, per ESPN. “You get shorter rotations of more of the guys playing in the playoffs, which is what you want to see anyway, right?”
Lakers star LeBron James believes that young players could probably benefit from “load management” – or at least more favorable scheduling – at the AAU level, as he tells Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “A lot of these [AAU] tournaments don’t have the best interest of these kids, man,” James said. “I see it. It’s like one time, they had to play a quarterfinal game, a semifinal game and a championship game starting at 9 a.m., and the championship game was at 12:30 p.m. Three games. I was like, ‘Oh, hell no.’ And my kids were dead tired. My kids were dead tired. This isn’t right. This is an issue.”

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/12/19

November 12th, 2019 at 10:12pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Here are Tuesday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA G League:

Victor Oladipo was assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to practice with the G League squad. He then was recalled by the Pacers and as Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (Twitter link), there remains no timetable for his return. Oladipo has another appointment with his doctor in a few weeks, according to Scott Agness of The Athletic (Twitter link), who hears the shooting guard has impressed during drills.
The Clippers have assigned two players to the G League. Mfiondu Kabengele and Derrick Walton Jr. will both report to the Agua Caliente Clippers, per the team’s Twitter feed.
The Knicks have recalled Ignas Brazdeikis from the Westchester Knicks, per the team’s Twitter feed. New York’s second-round pick was sent to the G League on Monday.
The Celtics have assigned four players to the G League for practice and then recalled each one. Grant Williams, Vincent Poirier, Carsen Edwards and Romeo Langford all practiced with the Maine Red Claws today.
The Rockets sent Gary Clark and Isaiah Hartenstein to the G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, as Mark Berman of Fox26 tweets.

Landry Shamet Sprains Ankle, Avoids Major Injury

November 12th, 2019 at 2:05pm CST by Luke Adams

2:05pm: Shamet has avoided a major injury, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who tweets that the guard has been diagnosed with a grade 2 high ankle sprain. A recovery timetable has yet to be determined.

8:44am: Clippers guard Landry Shamet left Monday’s win over Toronto early after turning his ankle and left the locker room on crutches, tweets Andrew Greif of The Los Angles Times. Shamet was diagnosed with a left ankle sprain and will undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury, league sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

Shamet, 22, has been one of the Clippers’ most-used players so far this season, averaging 30.7 minutes per contest in his first nine games before his 10th game was cut short. The second-year guard has also been one of the Clippers’ best outside shooters in the early going, knocking down 36.2% of 5.8 three-point attempts per game.

While losing Shamet would leave the Clippers with a hole in their rotation, there’s some good news on the injury front for the team, as Paul George is reportedly on the verge of returning.

George appears to be on track to make his Clippers debut on Wednesday in Houston or on Thursday in New Orleans and could eat up many of Shamet’s minutes if the youngster is forced to miss time. Backup swingman Rodney McGruder is among the other candidates for a boost in playing time.

Paul George Plans To Make Clippers Debut On Thursday

November 12th, 2019 at 12:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Star forward Paul George is expected to make his debut as a member of the Clippers on Thursday in New Orleans, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

George has spent the first three weeks of the regular season recovering from a pair of shoulder surgeries he underwent in the spring after the Thunder’s season came to an end.

There was an expectation that he’d miss about 10 games to start the season before targeting this week’s back-to-back set in Houston (Wednesday) and New Orleans (Thursday) for his return. Barring a setback, the plan is for him to sit out the game against the Rockets before suiting up vs. the Pelicans, says Haynes.

George’s return is great news for a Clippers team that may be without Landry Shamet, who is undergoing an MRI today on his sprained left ankle. If Shamet misses time, the rest of the Clippers should play similar minutes with George back in the lineup. Once the roster is fully healthy, some of those players figure to have their roles adjusted.

Kawhi Leonard, who is on a load-management plan, will likely sit out one game of the Clippers’ back-to-back set, but it’s unclear at this point whether that will happen Wednesday or Thursday.