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Clippers Fined $50K For Conflicting Statements On Kawhi Leonard

November 7th, 2019 at 6:27pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The NBA has fined the Clippers for inconsistent statements, including those by head coach Doc Rivers, regarding forward Kawhi Leonard‘s health status, according to a league press release.

Leonard sat out for the second time this season on Wednesday against Milwaukee as part of the team’s load management strategy for the superstar forward. Los Angeles’ decision to sit Leonard for ESPN’s nationally-televised game against Milwaukee was questioned in many circles.

Rivers unwittingly fanned the flames by saying in his press conference on Wednesday that Leonard felt just fine.

“He feels great. But he feels great because of what we’ve been doing… We’re just going to continue to do it,” Rivers said. “There’s no concern here. But we want to make sure. I think Kawhi made a statement that he’s never felt better. It’s our job to make sure he stays that way.”

Leonard’s absence was listed as a knee issue. The league’s statement regarding the fine indicated the team’s decision to sit Leonard was “consistent with league rules,” adding, “The team has reasonably determined that Leonard is suffering from an ongoing injury to the patella tendon in his left knee and has been placed by the team at this time on an injury protocol for back-to-back games.”

Essentially, the league has signed off on allowing Leonard to sit out a game on back-to-backs as long as the team doesn’t give the impression that Leonard is 100 percent.

The Clippers play the Trail Blazers in another nationally-televised event, this one on TNT, on Thursday night. Leonard played only 60 regular-season games in his lone season with the Raptors due to load management, which helped to keep him fresh for the postseason.

George Ready For Full-Contact Practice; Examining Kawhi's Load Management

November 7th, 2019 at 8:50am CST by Luke Adams

Paul George is scheduled to go through his first full-contact practice as a member of the Clippers on Saturday, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com. A Wednesday report indicated that the team is hoping to have George make his season debut next week, either on November 13 in Houston or November 14 in New Orleans.
Jovan Buha and Sam Amick of The Athletic take a deep dive into the Clippers‘ load managing of Kawhi Leonard, exploring whether his nights off are precautionary or if he’s actually dealing with an injury. Sources tell The Athletic duo that there’s no definitive plan to have Leonard miss half of every single back-to-back set this season. The star forward’s rest schedule will be determined a few weeks at a time, and could be adjusted as the year goes on.

Court Victory Boosts Clippers’ Arena Prospects

November 6th, 2019 at 9:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

A lawsuit seeking to block the Clippers‘ proposed new arena in Inglewood on the basis that the land should be used for affordable housing was denied today by Superior Court Judge Daniel Murphy, writes Jason Henry of The Pasadena Star News.

After hearing legal arguments yesterday, Murphy dismissed the suit filed by the Uplift Inglewood Coalition, a citizens group that was alleging an agreement with the NBA team violates California’s Surplus Land Act, which requires cities to make affordable housing a priority when selling publicly owned land.

City officials contend the land doesn’t qualify as surplus because the stated uses – economic development and aircraft noise mitigation – are permissible under the law. The city purchased properties on the land with a $120MM grant from the Federal Aviation Administration that discourages residential use.

“Under these circumstances, the City did not abuse its discretion in determining the Property remains ‘necessary for the agency’s use’ and is not surplus land,” Murphy wrote in his ruling.

The ruling takes away a significant obstacle for the proposed arena, which the Clippers hope to have ready for the fall of 2024. The project has been targeted by numerous lawsuits since it was announced, including one by the Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the Forum in Los Angeles.

“The people of Inglewood have time and again stood up for, testified for, and voted in favor of this project,” Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts said after today’s ruling was announced. “It would have been a travesty to allow a few malcontents to sabotage so much prosperity for this community.”

League OK With Kawhi Leonard’s Load Management

November 6th, 2019 at 7:46pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Clippers are hearing complaints after deciding to rest Kawhi Leonard in a pair of nationally televised games, but the NBA has ruled that the load management plan falls within league guidelines, writes ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Leonard will sit out tonight’s home game against the Bucks, depriving viewers of a match-up between reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the MVP of last season’s NBA Finals. L.A. isn’t currently planning to use Leonard in back-to-back situations any time during the season, sources tell Wojnarowski, and the Clippers host Portland tomorrow night.

“Kawhi Leonard is not a healthy player under the league’s resting policy, and, as such, is listed as managing a knee injury in the LA Clippers injury report,” league spokesman Mike Bass said. “The league office, in consultation with the NBA’s director of sports medicine, is comfortable with team medical staff’s determination that Leonard is not sufficiently healthy to play in back-to-back games at this time.”

The Raptors employed the same strategy last year, using Leonard in just 60 regular season games. That preserved him for the playoffs, where he averaged 30.5 points and 9.1 rebounds in 24 games and led Toronto to its first NBA title.

Wojnarowski notes that Leonard hasn’t played on back-to-back nights since April of 2017 when he was still with the Spurs. A quad injury the following season limited him to nine games for the season and led to a falling out with the organization.

“He feels great because of what we’ve been doing,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers told Malika Andrews of ESPN (Twitter link). “There’s no concern here. Our job is to make sure he stays that way.”

Clippers Targeting Next Week For Paul George’s Debut

November 6th, 2019 at 10:41am CST by Luke Adams

Clippers forward Paul George has yet to make his debut for his new team as he continues to recovery from shoulder surgery. However, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic, it sounds like that long-awaited debut may happen sometime next week.

Sources tell Amick that the Clippers are eyeing their back-to-back set of road games on November 13 (in Houston) and November 14 (in New Orleans) for George’s return. The hope is that the six-time All-Star will play in one of those games, but not both.

As Amick notes, there’s a chance that George will be able to return sooner – possibly Monday in Toronto – or that his debut will be postponed a few days, perhaps to November 16 vs. Atlanta. But that back-to-back set on November 13-14 is considered the most likely time for his Clippers debut.

Even if George makes it back for one of those games against the Rockets or Pelicans, it’s unclear if we’ll see the Clippers’ full arsenal on display, since Kawhi Leonard has only been playing one half of the club’s back-to-backs so far. Leonard will sit out tonight vs. Milwaukee before playing on Thursday against Portland, for instance.

If the Clippers decide to load-manage George in their upcoming back-to-back sets while he works his way back to 100%, it will be interesting to see whether the team rests both its stars at the same time or staggers their nights off.

Aldridge’s Latest: Iguodala, Nunn, Kings, Wizards

November 6th, 2019 at 10:07am CST by Luke Adams

Andre Iguodala technically remains under contract with the Grizzlies, but the expectation is that he’ll be traded or bought out at some point this season, allowing him to join a contender. While it remains to be seen which club Iguodala will end up playing for, David Aldridge of The Athletic asked several NBA executives to hazard a guess and virtually all of them predicted the Lakers would be the landing spot for the former Finals MVP.

“[The Lakers would offer the] best combination of ring chance and role,” one longtime team boss told Aldridge.

For Iguodala to get to the Lakers, the Grizzlies would almost certainly have to go the buyout route, since L.A. probably doesn’t have the necessary salary-matching pieces to take on Iguodala’s $17MM+ salary in a trade. The only non-stars on the Lakers’ roster earning more than $4.77MM this season are Danny Green ($14.64MM), who is a key rotation player, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($8.09MM), who holds a de facto no-trade clause.

As Aldridge notes, a league-wide belief that the Lakers will land Iguodala doesn’t mean it will actually happen. There will also plenty of people around the NBA who thought Kawhi Leonard would become a Laker in the summer, and the Clippers ultimately closed that deal. The Clips – who were the only team besides the Lakers to receive a vote in Aldridge’s informal poll of execs – would presumably be in the running for Iguodala too.

Here’s more from Aldridge’s latest Athletic article:

Kendrick Nunn‘s agent Adam Pensack tells Aldridge that he “pushed pretty strongly” in his attempt to get his client a 10-day contract with an NBA team last season. When that didn’t happen, Pensack and Nunn went looking for an NBA home once the G League season ended. The Kings brought in several players for a workout and told them they’d sign the best player in the group. Sacramento chose B.J. Johnson over Nunn, opening the door for the former Oakland standout to catch on with the Heat a week later. We explored that deal in more depth last week.
Here’s more from Heat director of scouting Chet Kammerer on why the team signed Nunn and spent time developing him: “Coach (Erik) Spoelstra is big right now on having guys that are versatile, on guys that aren’t one-dimensional. It’s the fact we saw a couple of things. He was really versatile. He always seemed like a tough kid, physically and mentally tough. To me, he was hard to guard. When we played them, he found ways. It was tough to stay in front of the guy. He’s an attacker. He competes hard. He was a better shooter than all of us thought, too. You look at his percentages, and we said, ‘This is a guy can shoot the ball.’ You look at all of those things, and that’s a Heat guy, to us.”
Despite the Kings‘ slow start, general manager Vlade Divac told Aldridge in a text message that he’s pleased with what he has seen from head coach Luke Walton so far. “Very happy with him,” Divac said. “His approach, communication and relationship with the players needs more time and he needs to learn about personalities but I really like what I see. It’s a process; can’t do stuff over night.”
While the Wizards probably won’t be a playoff team in 2019/20, they’ve been fun to watch so far this season, which has rubbed off on the front office. “I actually like coming to work in the morning,” a senior member of the team’s staff told Aldridge.

Clippers Considered Waiving Harrell In 2017

November 4th, 2019 at 9:24pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Forward Montrezl Harrell continues to prove his worth to the Clippers, Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times writes. Harrell, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, is averaging 19.3 PPG and 5.9 RPG to help the team weather the injury absence of Paul George. After acquiring him in the Chris Paul deal with Houston, the Clippers were so unsure about Harrell that they considered waiving him during the summer of 2017, according to Elliott.

FAA Approves Clippers' Plans For Inglewood Arena

November 3rd, 2019 at 7:02pm CST by JD Shaw

The Federal Aviation Adminstration has approved the Clippers’ plans for a new billion-dollar arena in Inglewood, Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times writes. In their approval, it was confirmed that the 37 applications covering the majority of the proposed idea pose no hazards to aviation, Fenno notes. The Clippers are hoping to move into their new arena in 2024, the same year their lease at Staples Center expires.

Pacific Notes: George, Fox, Ayton, Curry

November 3rd, 2019 at 11:41am CST by Arthur Hill

The Clippers are getting encouraging signs that Paul George might be ready for action soon, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. George participated in a full-court, three-on-three scrimmage Saturday that lasted about 20 minutes, his most strenuous workout since having offseason surgery on both shoulders.

The team still isn’t offering a timetable for his season debut, and coach Doc Rivers didn’t provide any new information. Rivers speculated last month that George would miss the first 10 games, which would keep him sidelined for at least four more.

“At some point, someone’s going to tell me who can play,” Rivers said yesterday. “I’ve never really gotten involved in it.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

De’Aaron Fox hasn’t lost faith in new Kings coach Luke Walton despite a rough start, relays Jason Jones of The Athletic. Walton wants Fox to assume more control over the team as the season wears on, and the confidence seems to be reciprocated. “We’re going to ride with him,” Fox said of Walton. “He’s been great since the day that he stepped in. I think we feel like we trust him and he trusts us.”
Deandre Ayton has served five games of his 25-game suspension, giving the Suns an opportunity to add another player to the roster, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. Ayton is now on the suspended list, where he will remain until December 17 unless his appeal is successful. Phoenix already has 15 players with guaranteed contracts, and there has been no indication on whether the team plans to make a roster move.
A broken hand hasn’t affected Stephen Curry‘s desire to play in the 2020 Olympics, his father tells Marc J. Spears of ESPN. Former NBA star Dell Curry said his son is still looking forward to his first Olympic experience. “That was definitely a goal coming into this year,” he said. “He wants to play in the Olympics. This is a little setback, but hopefully it’s a goal he can strive for through his rehab.” Curry added that Stephen is “doing the best he can” after having surgery this week.

Kawhi Leonard Won’t Play On Wednesday

October 30th, 2019 at 12:27pm CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers will hold Kawhi Leonard out of Wednesday’s game vs. the Jazz, according to head coach Doc Rivers, who told reporters today that the star forward will be back in L.A.’s lineup on Thursday vs. San Antonio (Twitter link via Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com).

This is the first time in Leonard’s brief tenure as a Clipper that he will miss a game for load-management purposes, though it likely won’t be the last. The reigning Finals MVP only appeared in 60 games last season as the Raptors held him out of one end of back-to-backs and a few other contests.

Rivers said in September that he didn’t anticipate Leonard being on as strict a load-management plan for the 2019/20 season. However, it was clear he didn’t expect Kawhi to play in all 82 games.

This is the Clippers’ first back-to-back set of the year, so it’ll be interesting to see whether he also misses a game during the team’s next back-to-back — Rivers said today that the club will evaluate that on a “case-by-case” basis (Twitter link via MacMahon).

The Clips are scheduled to host the Bucks next Wednesday, followed by the Trail Blazers on Thursday. They have another back-to-back on tap for November 13 and 14 in Houston and New Orleans. Paul George may have returned to action by that time.

Leonard’s official listing for tonight’s game is “out – load management, knee,” per Jovan Buha of The Athletic (Twitter link). As MacMahon notes (via Twitter), the NBA is requiring a specific body part to be listed this season, rather than just “load management.” The former Raptor reportedly battled a sore left knee during the team’s championship run in the spring, so the Clippers presumably want to limit the risk of that issue flaring up again.