- Confirming a recent report from Mark Medina, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank says the Clippers will “continue to build around” Kawhi Leonard and Paul George despite their injury troubles, as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN relays. “Kawhi’s a ceiling raiser,” Frank said. “When you study past NBA champions, they have a top-five guy on their team, and Kawhi has shown that when healthy he can be the best player in the world. Paul is an eight-time All-Star now. So we’re going to continue to build around those guys and look for every which way [to improve around them].”
- Both Leonard and George are eligible for pricey contract extensions in the offseason, and the Clippers will discuss the matter with their star players when the time comes, per Youngmisuk. “Those guys are great players and they’re great partners and we want to keep them as Clippers for a long time,” Frank said. “And so we’ll look forward to those conversations. And the No. 1 goal is how can we build a sustainable championship team? And those guys have been great partners, so at the appropriate time, we look forward to sitting down with them.”
Russell Westbrook is welcome to return to the Clippers, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said on Thursday. Westbrook is headed to unrestricted free agency and the Clippers were not only impressed with the veteran guard on the court but off it as well.
“He brings a great energy and spirit to the team, around the building,” the Clippers exec told Law Murray of The Athletic and other media members.
The Clippers are also interested in retaining Mason Plumlee and Eric Gordon, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk, though it seems unlikely the Clippers will guarantee the $20.9MM remaining on Gordon’s contract.
Despite a disappointing first-round playoff exit that saw Paul George (right knee sprain) and Kawhi Leonard (torn right meniscus) sidelined with injuries, the Clippers remain committed to their star duo, a person with knowledge of the situation tells Mark Medina of Sportsnaut.com.
As Medina writes, both players have missed significant time due to injuries since the Clippers acquired them in the 2019 offseason, but they are under contract through at least 2023/24, with player options for ’24/25. The Clippers still believe George and Leonard are in the prime of their careers and are “enamored” with their ability to play both ends of the court.
Here’s more on the Clippers:
- Leonard is still exploring his options with team doctors to determine whether or not he’ll need surgery for his meniscus tear, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times, who reports that the process could take a while. Greif points out that the Clippers will have a challenging offseason because they’re projected to be well over the luxury tax again and three of their veteran forwards (Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington) had inconsistent seasons, making them difficult to trade.
- Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times believes the Clippers should trade Leonard or George, or perhaps even both, arguing that their inability to stay on the court has made them more detrimental than beneficial. Plaschke considers the Clippers legitimate contenders when both players are healthy and praises the organization as a whole, in particular owner Steve Ballmer, but thinks all of that is ultimately irrelevant when Leonard and George simply don’t play enough games for it to matter.
- Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca makes the opposite case, arguing that the Clippers should stick with Leonard because he is perhaps the most dominant postseason performer in the world when healthy. Grange believes Leonard’s desire to win championships is undeniable, pointing to Toronto’s title run in 2019 as evidence.
- George, who turns 33 next week, believes he can be productive for several more seasons, writes Law Murray of The Athletic. “I think I got a lot of good years in me, I know Kawhi thinks he’s got a lot of good years in him,” George said before Game 5. “I mean, I’m not going to put any pressure on that anytime soon. The only thing I can do is continue to just work on my game, work on myself and just try to be available as much as possible. … It hurts to not play and watch the guys put it all in the line and not be able to do the same. It’s very frustrating, and it sucks. It really does suck.”
- In another article for The Athletic, Murray writes that guard Russell Westbrook made a positive impact on many people within the organization during his few months with the Clippers. His strong playoff showing may convince a rival team to offer him more money in free agency than the Clippers are able to, so retaining him might be difficult unless he’s willing to take a discount, says Murray.
Starting Suns center Deandre Ayton was a big part of Phoenix’s 4-1 series victory over the Clippers, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
“He’s finding ways to impact winning,” head coach Monty Williams noted last week. “In Game 2, his mid-range shot kept us in the game and allowed us to gain some momentum and footing. (In Game 3), he wasn’t making the shots he typically makes, but he still found a way to impact the game. The rebound at the end was huge.”
For the series, Ayton averaged an impressive 16.0 PPG and 11.2 RPG, despite essentially functioning as the club’s fourth option on offense.
There’s more out of Phoenix:
- Though injury-prone All-Star Suns power forward Kevin Durant has been logging major minutes so far in these playoffs, Durant claims the heavy usage doesn’t bother him, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. “I want to be out there every minute,” Durant said. “I wish I could play 48 every game.” Across a whopping 43.8 MPG, Durant averaged 28.4 PPG (on .518/.458/.956 shooting), 7.6 RPG, 6.2 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 1.0 BPG.
- Despite being on opposing sides of their just-wrapped playoff series, Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has served as a mentor to Suns reserve wing Ish Wainright, per Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. “He’s like a big brother,” Wainright said. “I know things are not going to go the way that I wanted and I’m going to be patient. He was patient and that’s what I look up to. What’s mine is mine. God said that what’s yours is yours, so that’s how I live. What’s mine is mine and he showed me a way — Ty did it, why can’t I do it?”
- All-NBA Suns shooting guard Devin Booker has been solidifying himself as a two-way superstar throughout this stupendous playoff run, writes Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. During the team’s Game 5 home closeout victory over the Clippers, Booker scored 47 points on 19-of-27 shooting from the floor, and also chipped in 10 dimes, eight boards, and two steals. Bourguet notes that Booker now has notched the most 30- and 40-point playoff games in the history of the franchise.
The right knee injury that Kawhi Leonard suffered during the Clippers‘ playoff series was a torn meniscus, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Coach Tyronn Lue revealed on Monday that Leonard was injured in L.A.’s Game 1 victory and the condition became worse as he played through it in Game 2. The medical staff made the decision to shut him down for the rest of the series, according to Charania.
The torn meniscus is in the same knee where Leonard suffered a partially torn ACL during the 2021 playoffs. That injury forced him to miss all of last season and limited his availability this year.
Leonard was spectacular in the first two games against the Suns, averaging 34.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists as the Clippers left Phoenix with a 1-1 split. They lost the next three games with Leonard sidelined.
The recovery time from a meniscus tear can vary depending on the severity and the treatment. Two recent examples are Cameron Johnson, who was injured in early November and resumed playing in mid-January, and Collin Sexton, who didn’t return last season after tearing his meniscus in November 2021, but was fully healthy this year.
The Clippers took a gamble when they signed Leonard to a new four-year, $176.3MM contract in 2021. He will make $45.6MM next season, then has a $48.8MM player option for 2024/25. Given Leonard’s injury history, the Clippers’ disappointing playoff record and the financial restraints imposed by the new collective bargaining agreement, his long-term future in L.A. appears to be uncertain.
Tyronn Lue plans to return next season as the Clippers’ head coach and he hopes to have Russell Westbrook with him, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
Lue addressed two of L.A.’s biggest offseason questions after his team was knocked out of the playoffs Tuesday night in Phoenix. There have been whispers that he might consider resigning if the Clippers suffered an early exit, but he showed no uncertainty after Game 5 about his plans for 2023/24.
Youngmisuk notes that this has been a particularly difficult season for Lue because of the frequent unavailability of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George due to injuries and load management. L.A. was considered one of the favorites in the West last fall, but had to go on a hot streak late in the season to finish at 44-38 and avoid the play-in tournament.
Leonard played just 52 games in his first season back from a partially torn ACL and was only available for two games in the playoff series. George played 56 games during the regular season, but he suffered a sprained knee in March that forced him to miss the playoffs entirely. Youngmisuk points out that the Clippers were 24-14 in the 38 games that Leonard and George played together.
“I think the encouraging thing, with PG and Kawhi healthy, we haven’t lost a series yet,” Lue said. “It’s always in the back of your mind, ‘What if.’ It’s easy to say, ‘What if,’ because a lot of guys get hurt. It’s just been our luck the last three years.”
“If you look back to my first year taking over, we did some really good things. Kawhi tears his ACL then he misses the whole next season. … I think just taking some time and let our coaches get a break, let everybody get a break, reflect on the season, come back and just try to be better than we were this year.”
One of the reasons the Clippers were able to salvage their season was the unlikely comeback by Westbrook, who became a pariah with the cross-town Lakers before being traded to Utah in February. Leonard, George and other veterans lobbied the front office to sign Westbrook after his buyout, and he turned in several vintage performances late in the season and in the playoffs.
Westbrook signed a veteran’s minimum contract for the rest of the season and will be a free agent again this summer. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes, the best offer the Clippers can make to Westbrook under the new collective bargaining agreement is $3.8MM using the Non-Bird exception.
After Tuesday’s loss, Westbrook said he has enjoyed his time with the Clippers and is grateful to the organization for giving him a chance to revive his career.
“One thing I do tell you is that I love it here,” he said. “I love the people, just the fans overall embracing not just me but my family and close friends. I know a lot of things have happened (this season), but I’m grateful. I definitely love being here. As far as making a decision, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. I don’t really know my process because it’s kind of my first time doing this. So we’ll see what happens.”
The second tax apron that’s included in the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement will be phased in over two seasons, sources tell John Hollinger of The Athletic.
The new financial provision is designed to discourage excessive spending by the league’s wealthiest franchises. It is set at $17.5MM above the luxury tax threshold and places severe restrictions on teams that go above that figure.
Penalties for exceeding the second apron include the loss of the mid-level exception, a ban on including cash as part of trades and the inability to accept more salary in a trade than the team sends out. A team in the second apron will also be unable to aggregate salary in trades and cannot trade its first-round pick seven years in the future (ie. its 2030 pick in 2023/24) or sign players on the buyout market.
Also, if a team exceeds the second apron and remains there in two of the four subsequent years, its frozen draft pick (the one that was initially seven years out) will get moved to the end of the first round, regardless of the team’s record in that season.
Hollinger points out that the Clippers and Warriors face the most immediate concerns about the second apron. Both teams are currently about $40MM above the luxury tax line and are locked into payrolls at the same level for next season. Hollinger notes that the only way for either team to substantially reduce its payroll over the next few years is to downgrade its roster.
He adds that the Bucks, Celtics, Mavericks, Lakers and Suns are also more than $17.5MM above the tax line this season, but they have easier paths to avoiding the second apron in the future.
There’s more on the new CBA:
- Teams that exceed the first apron by going $7MM above the tax will see their taxpayer MLE reduced to $5MM with a two-year maximum for signings, Hollinger adds. Like teams above the second apron, they will also be unable to take back more salary than they send out in any deal and will be prohibited from signing most players who get bought out.
- Any team that’s below the league’s salary floor on the first day of the 2024/25 season will not receive a tax distribution for that year, Bobby Marks points out in an ESPN writers’ discussion of the CBA provisions. That’s likely to encourage low-spending teams to add an additional free agent or two to make sure their payroll qualifies. Marks notes that the union also benefits from the addition of 30 more jobs with each team adding a third two-way slot, as well as growth in the non-taxpayer and room mid-level exceptions.
- The number of players that teams can have under contract during the offseason and training camp will increase from 20 to 21, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca.
Kawhi Leonard will miss his third straight game as the Clippers try to prevent their season from ending tonight in Phoenix, and coach Tyronn Lue made it clear that Leonard’s absence is unavoidable, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
Lue said Leonard suffered a sprained right knee during the series opener, and the injury got worse as he played through it in Game 2. Leonard sat out Monday’s practice while receiving treatment on the knee and has already been ruled out for Game 5.
The Clippers have received criticism for their “load management” policy with Leonard, who played just 52 games in his first season after returning from a partial ACL tear. Lue said that’s not what’s happening now, and Leonard would be ready to play if he were physically capable.
“He’s definitely hurt,” Lue said. “Like this is not load management where he’s taking time off. He’s shown in his past that he’s played through injuries in the playoffs. If it’s something that he can’t play through, then it has to be pretty serious. We’re not talking about he’s sitting out because of load management or he’s tired or nothing like that. It’s an actual thing. What the outside is saying, who cares.”
Leonard was outstanding in the first two games of the series, scoring 38 points in Game 1 as L.A. picked up a win on the Suns’ home court, then following that with 31 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in Game 2. Without him available, the Clippers lost back-to-back games at home and now have to overcome a 3-1 series deficit.
Leonard’s injury comes at an especially bad time, with Paul George already sidelined by a right knee sprain that he suffered in late March. George has been making progress in his recovery and was seen driving hard to the basket Monday, but he’s considered unlikely to return during the first round.
Without his two stars, Lue has been turning to unorthodox lineups in an effort to create difficult matchups for the Suns. The Clippers have used five guards at times as Russell Westbrook and Norman Powell have taken on more of the scoring load, and Lue indicated that he has more tricks ready for Game 5.
“It’s a tough situation to be in, with your two main guys out,” he said. “But I love our guys in the locker room. I’d go to war with these guys any time. That’s the reason I have confidence, because of the guys we have in the locker room, and we are not going to give in. We just (got to) clean up a few things, like we’re right there.”
Forward Kyle Anderson has been ruled out by the Timberwolves for Game 5 of the first-round series against the Nuggets on Tuesday, the team’s PR department tweets.
Anderson suffered an eye injury on Sunday when he was struck by teammate Anthony Edwards as the two Timberwolves teammates defended a dunk attempt by DeAndre Jordan. Anderson is averaging 8.5 points, 4.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds in the series, which Denver leads 3-1.
We have more injury-related news:
- The Clippers will be without both of their superstars again for Game 5. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have been ruled for Tuesday’s game as their team faces elimination against the Suns, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets. Leonard received treatment on his sprained right knee on Monday but didn’t practice, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times tweets.
- While Kings star guard De’Aaron Fox was initially considered doubtful for Wednesday’s game against the Warriors due to a fractured index finger on his left hand, there is internal optimism that Fox will try to play, Sam Amick and Shams Charania of The Athletic report. The medical staff will try to figure out if it’s feasible for Fox to play with the injury, which is on his shooting hand. The Kings have confirmed Fox has an avulsion fracture, Marc Stein tweets.
- Joel Embiid‘s status for the second-round series remains unclear as he tries to recover from a sprained LCL in his right knee. “I’m told he’s doing better and he’s moving around better,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne said on the NBA Today show (video link) regarding the Sixers’ center. “The swelling has subsided … (but) you’re not going to push it with something like that.”
LeBron James fired back at the Grizzlies and nemesis Dillon Brooks with a typical big-game performance on Saturday, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times opines. Brooks got ejected for hitting James in the groin region, while the Lakers superstar delivered 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the 10-point Game 3 victory. “This is not my first rodeo, I’ve had this throughout my career with certain individuals,” he said.
We have more on the Los Angeles teams:
- James didn’t want to share an opinion on whether Brooks’ ejection warranted a suspension for Monday’s Game 4, Mark Medina of The Sporting Tribune relays. “I don’t know. I’m not part of the committee,” the Lakers star said. “If he’s in the lineup or he’s out of the lineup, we have to prepare no matter what. I look forward to the challenges that Monday will bring.”
- Lakers guard Austin Reaves is getting used to taking hits, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times writes. Reaves said he was struck in the face three or four times during Game 3. He shook off the blows and contributed 13 points, six rebounds and two assists. “I’m getting used to it,” said Reaves, a restricted free agent after the season.
- There’s a simple reason why the Clippers are facing elimination — the Suns have their stars and they don’t, Law Murray of The Athletic notes. The Clippers are facing a 3-1 deficit with Kawhi Leonard sidelined the last two games and Paul George sitting out the entire series. That has put much more pressure on the remaining players, including four rotation members that joined the team in the last quarter of the regular season. “I think the biggest thing is acquiring four new guys during the trade deadline with only 21 games left,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “It makes it harder, because they’re still learning on the fly pretty much. And when Kawhi and PG both don’t play, it’s unfamiliar territory for the other guys.”
- Russell Westbrook has averaged 31.7 points and 7.0 assists in the last three games and former teammate Kevin Durant said his former teammate is showing up his critics, Janis Carr of the Orange County Register writes. “When he retires, people are (going to) really tell the truth about how they feel about his game,” Durant said. “Right now, the fun thing to do is to make a joke out of Russ but the way he’s been playing since he got with the Clippers is showing everybody who he really is.”