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. The league office, in consultation with the NBA's director of sports medicine is comfortable with the team medical staff's determination that Leonard is not sufficiently healthy to play in back-to-back games at this time. He is not healthy,PG13 is not playing yet and would not be healthy for a long time and they are favorites.It is not just make any sense.
That's a fair response. Always detailed and articulated said, abeer... I'd be less worried of LeBron was 30; I would venture to say that the last 3 games would be sustainable at that age, and I wouldn't bet money on him in a 7 game series. However, that isn't the reality we deal with; he's 35, and given the level he's playing at, I don't believe it can last especially on the defensive end, and I expect that efficiency will go down at some point... Taking that into consideration, both teams will win a lot of regular season games, and I still don't think we have seen the best Anthony Davis quote yet. Additionally, we didn't see Davis at the 5 or LBJ at the 4, Kuz was out, etc. Nevertheless, they were missing George, and I believe he will make a big impact defensively for that team...he was fantastic last year, and I think that continues. I am of the opinion we need 1 more wing with size; if no Iggy, I am looking at somebody like MKG from Charlotte who can guard 1-3, and while he can't shoot, he can be serviceable and take on the responsibility of guarding Kawhi, George, DDR, Westbrook, etc. We also need another playmaker, ballhandler; I think Rondo will serve that role now, but I don't trust him...if we can both those two needs, I think we're poised for a real run.
i think on paper, they deserve the title of favorites. i'm fine with it. again, it's just that the certainty with which people are proclaiming their dominance is outpacing the actual demonstration of said dominance. if they're all fully healthy for the playoffs, i'd put my money on them to win it. but that's a big IF with their roster, which no one acknowledges. these same people point to lebron's odometer every other day. that's fair, but so is pointing to kawhi's calcifying quad muscle. edit: this was in response to kuzmo @LaVarBallsDad: yes, it would be nice to get another wing defender--preferably a high hoop iq one like iggy. someone we're not talking about may shake loose as the season progresses.
One area I am curious about as the season series with the Clips progresses is coaching. I won't put too much into it being the first game and all, but it was the only game so far where Vogel was clearly outcoached. If we play down to their size or up to their pace, they will murder us in a series. It's as simple as that. On the Iggy front, I really wish he was still with GS right now. With their tank a thon, I think they'd be more likely to buy him out than the damn stubborn Grizz.
It is all b******* with Lebron age talk. Kobe before he was injured which is basically finished his career Before the injury: Bryant was past his prime, but he was still a dominant force, averaging 27.3 points on 46 percent shooting that season. LeBron the same.Last year he just didn't want to play ,I dont think he wasn't injured that badly. And Kawhi was just super lucky that Durant and Klay got injured.If they were healthy none of this nonsense with load management would not even be discussed at all.
eh, we were also outplayed, tbh. lebron played his worst game of the year in that one, being pretty passive and not punishing mismatches. i'm guessing that we won't see kcp on kawhi again, though, nor will we just sort of watch the lou/trez tandem waltz directly to the basket for like, 5 consecutive trips. word. nobody talks about the fact that toronto was playing a skeleton crew, or that without that lucky bounce, kawhi's team might have lost in the conference semifinals. history is written by the victors, i guess. but i saw these things...
ie, the cLips will continue to load manage dude and the league will look the other way in the interest of a star studded and competitive postseason (ie must $ee TV) and anybody that says otherwise will get fined haha.
Fans get outraged paying NBA ticket prices for guys who are load managing. It has the potential for major fan backlash
Popovich started this. Like Kobe said about flopping probably the same thing about load managing would come out of his mouth. Where's their balls? Yeah yeah yeah .... yeah. I get it with Bron. We were just so fortunate to have had 20 years of Kobe effing Bryant to root for. Left everything he had on the floor every night. And worked like no other in the off season and during the season to be able to do it. Half cyborg no doubt we'll find out some day.
i really don't have a good solution. i suppose cutting 6 games off the schedule and using that to even further reduce b2b and 3in4 situations could help in theory. but the fear then is that you lose revenue on those 6 games and people still load manage. maybe if someone's going to rest, they have to rest for 2 games? something like the IR in other sports (though i don't know exactly how those work, tbh). but that might make people reconsider strategic rest like the clips are doing. at least pop often rested his guys against bad teams and not in nationally televised games, iirc.
yea, it's a bit of a conundrum for sure, and like so many things, ultimately comes down to money. perhaps we will see this more in the latter portion of the season, especially with the older guys... but i'm curious to see how the league handles this moving forward. at first glance, i like the idea of being forced to sit out two games if LM is the reason behind your absence. again, this really just boils down to money, and BSPN is bitter that he rested on their dime. it would be pretty amazing if he selected all LM nights to manage loads of BSPN tears...
Schedule is too long. I get that it’s always been long, but it hasn’t always had 4 rounds of 7 game series in the playoffs. The Clippers are smart to load manage Kawhi, he is used to playing 60-some games per season. It sucks, but the endgame is a title, we’d be smart to sit LeBron for some games too if we feel we can afford to. It’s just dumb for the league to lie about it, “he’s injured”, no he’s not, he’s trying to leave something in the playoff tank, don’t lie, we’re not stupid.
