How Important is a New Medical/Training Staff Going Forward??

[Quake Griffin]

Big deal or little deal?
Is it one of the bigger needs of the offseason?

I have seen some posters be very vocal on this issue. Just want some more context on this issue.


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[Wammy Giveaway]

The Clippers medical staff is one of the few departments which still has employees who were hired by Donald Sterling. They have the technology to implement the scans and remedies, but it's the personnel running the show that is suspect. Rumor has it the medical/training staff is corrupt.

[Dynamix]

Rumor has it the medical/training staff is corrupt.

No argument about incompetence, but how exactly can they be corrupt? Do they take money from other teams to keep our players out?

[esqtvd]

I blame the "Executive Performance Chef" Priscilla Martinez. She's serving them salmon and kale.

Kale. Most of all, I blame the kale. Grown men should not eat kale.

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[thanumba2clippersfan]

I actually enjoy eating Kale!

[Ranma]

The Clippers medical staff is one of the few departments which still has employees who were hired by Donald Sterling. They have the technology to implement the scans and remedies, but it's the personnel running the show that is suspect. Rumor has it the medical/training staff is corrupt.

No argument about incompetence, but how exactly can they be corrupt? Do they take money from other teams to keep our players out?

With the extended level of incompetence by the Clippers' training and medical staff, corruption can't be ruled out, though I would like more details instead of just passing on a rumor. It's already disastrous enough that the Clippers are possibly misdiagnosing injuries out of incompetence and Doc nudging his cronies in the organization to push the players to perform through their injuries at the expense of the players' own personal health, but corruption takes it to another level. Sterling once had his head coach Paul Silas tape the ankles of his players, so it's not beyond Sterling to find ways to cut corners.

Like Wammy said, this organization still has staff that were originally hired during the Sterling era and could just be used to doing business a certain way whether that is taking kickbacks in exchange for substandard service and products or referring patients (players) to friends and close associates. The medical industry today, in general, is wrought with such underhanded practices, so why would it be different under Sterling's watch?

We all know about Jared Dudley being egregiously mis-handled by Doc, but I want to remind everyone that Glen "Big Baby" Davis made a point to call out the organization for short-changing him on his own medical files and that Blake Griffin all but outright stated that the organization's staff didn't do its job properly.

We constantly hear about the Phoenix Suns being a free-agent destination because of their medical and training staff and methodologies but the Clippers are known more for being the opposite. We also know that players talk to each other and word spreads quickly, so I don't understand why Ballmer hasn't totally cleaned house and gone with a first-class crew like he aims to do with everything else.

Not only is it absolutely vital to protecting and maintaining our own players, but it's a consideration for free agents. Why pay millions of dollars to players to play basketball games if you're not going to invest in the best practices in order to keep them healthy and in optimum condition to perform at the highest level? Missed man-games due to injury can easily derail a team's success, so it is beyond comprehension that we don't invest in having the best personnel to limit or otherwise safeguard against such loss labor.

Greatness doesn't happen in a vacuum as a support group is an essential resource to accomplishing it. Heck, ask LeBron James. Even Kawhi Leonard doesn't seem to trust the Spurs with regard to his health. Why would he when players like Grant Hill had their careers sabotaged by short-sighted organizations like the Pistons in taking advantage of their personal competitiveness and pride?

Gio & Jones, CBS Sports Radio (4/25/16)

“This is what happened,” the former Clipper said on CBS Sports Radio’s Gio and Jones. “Let me tell you how it happened. Game 6 against the Spurs (last year), go back and look at the tape. I broke my ankle and didn’t know it was broke until September before the season is about to start. So I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I just got to do some rehab with it. Whatever.’ I end up getting the MRI, which, I didn’t get an MRI from the Clippers. They didn’t tell me anything. I thought I was fine. Then I end up getting the MRI right before the season stars and they’re like, ‘Your ankle’s broke.’ I’m a free agent at the time. So I got to get it fixed. Nobody’s going to pick me up with a broken ankle.”

Davis said the Clippers’ training staff did not tell him he had broken his ankle. He felt pain after Game 6 against the Spurs – and went on to play Game 7 and was used sparingly in seven games against Houston in the Western Conference semifinals – but he didn’t think it was anything serious.”

“They told me I was fine,” Davis said of the Clippers’ training staff. “They told me I was okay. They told me, ‘Just get some physical therapy, get it stronger and you’ll be fine. You’ll be okay.’ Okay, my ankle’s broke and now I got to sit and watch everybody play this year.”

Glen Davis Explains Why He Didn’t Play This Season

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[Wammy Giveaway]

Can I tie into your argument as to how the Clipper's medical problems are technically a parallel to the Mavericks sexual abuse scandal in that, as long as these injuries continue to take place, the organization will be pointed the finger at for protecting their personal interests. All these injuries are a sign in that the owner MUST clean out the medical and training staff. For all intents and purposes, the Clippers have been eliminated from playoff contention this season - maybe that's what it takes for Ballmer to finally acknowledge the importance of health awareness, and it may be up to their special consultant Jerry West to get into the owner's ear. You see, West isn't really a special consultant... He's their general advisor.

I'd been advocating for a general advisor for a very long time - somebody who can keep both the front office business gurus and the on-court basketball team and coaching personnel in check and in unison. For a team who has been mired in dysfunction their entire lives, with owners helping other teams at the expense of making theirs a laughingstock, and players avoiding the Clippers because of its internal and external dysfunction, the dark clouds of Jerry West to rain out the mud and let in the sun as opposed to festering an already chaotic monsoon is a major welcome. At the very minimum, West is going to give the Clippers the relevance of the Grizzlies.

I told you he's their savior.

[esqtvd]

The Sterling hole was deep. Ran across this the other day, Jan 2017:

Nourishment and health are on Doc's mind as, outside the walls of his office, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, general manager R.C. Buford and the rest of the Spurs' staff march into the arena for the night's marquee matchup. Rivers says the Spurs' brass have set the bar when it comes to keeping their players fresh and healthy.

The Clippers, however, have been a different story, Rivers admits. Under previous owner Donald Sterling, Rivers believes the Clippers were woefully understaffed to treat and prevent injuries in ways that other teams could.

"We had one trainer, one physical therapist," Rivers says. "We were just behind. They didn't spend money before."

Former Clipper Jared Dudley claimed on ESPN.com's Lowe Post podcast in July 2015 that he was dogged with a fractured knee all season with the Clippers before getting traded to Milwaukee. Dudley says his knee healed after two weeks under the Milwaukee Bucks' care.

...

Instead of shirking responsibility and resigning it to bad luck, Rivers went to work this past summer to establish a sports science and performance department to complement the work of Clippers trainer Jasen Powell, who has been with the team for almost two decades. Rivers, along with Lawrence Frank, who moved from the coaching bench to the front office as executive VP of basketball operations, picked up the phone and called around the league to find the best talent and bring it to the Clippers.

They settled on Mark Simpson, who was a British performance guru in the world of cycling before the Oklahoma City Thunder made him the first full-time sports science director in the four major American sports. This summer, the Clippers hired him away from their Western Conference foe -- then set to work augmenting their nutrition, sleep and recovery systems to ensure they would get the most out of their players.

For the first time, they bought into Catapult GPS training systems and leveraged the workload data to amplify their decision-making. Now at every practice, players wear a GPS tracker strapped to their bodies. The front office and coaching staff logs as much time surfing Second Spectrum's analytics software as any team in the league.

"We track everything," Rivers says. "I'm still learning. I'm still new to it."

So why didn't they do all this sooner?

"Well, we couldn't," Rivers says. "People don't realize Steve [Ballmer] bought the team and in the first year, he was just trying to get things going. It was this summer where we could sit him down ... and talk to him about all the things we need to add and get going. Last year, it was too quick of a turnaround."

It took time, in other words, to rebuild from the Sterling era -- and lots of presentations. "The thing I love about Steve is that you've got to show him why," Rivers says of the sales pitches for different types of technology and staffing. "He's not just a blank check -- you wouldn't want that anyway. The apathy hurts you; you wouldn't be as good."

When assessing the rest of the league, Rivers found two problem areas in his own organization: scouts and science. According to the Clippers' reports, the rest of the league had 10 staffers in the scouting department and the Clippers had just two. "And you have to show [Ballmer] why and how far we were behind other teams in literally every department," Rivers says. "And these were easy ones."

...

Though the Clippers' additions aren't as worldly as San Antonio's, the team did add multiple performance gurus and scientists to the staff. The team's new director of sports performance psychology is Ross Flowers, a former psychologist for Team USA track and field. Assisting Simpson with workload technology is Jay Porterfield, a 25-year-old former USC track runner and coordinator at USC's Body Computing department. He was hired to be the team's performance scientist and biomedical data analyst.

As they say, read the whole thing.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/clippers-combating-bad-luck-injuries-science/story?id=45041317

[playaloc916]

I'm surprised they haven't already brought in a new medical staff. We've added a bunch of new front office pieces, and also science/dieticians which is great, but we've historically had a bad medical staff, so I'd think fixing that would have been a priority... I think it's common sense that with the right staff, we can help prevent injuries and improve recovery time. And knowing all the playoffs we've had cut short due to injuries, we need to get on this ASAP.

[esqtvd]

And CP still missed 20 games [and counting] this year with Houston. So it goes.

[og15]

Injuries can't be totally avoided, every team will have them, but of course you can be better or worse at preventing and managing injuries. Being short on personell is one way to have an inferior injury management team. Obviously the reports of mis-diagnosis or not managing an injury well are troubling, but without knowing more details it is hard to truly know. It is possible that there are some issues, it is also possible that they were unlucky, but multiple situations obviously puts them in line of questions.

[MrHill]

I was just glancing at the team's club directory the other day (I'll sometimes do it year-to-year), and there are three names that stood out--Ralph Lawler, Denise Booth (the VP of community relations), and Jasen Powell. Those are, as far as we know, the only remaining people left-over from the Sterling era. The franchise, since at least since Gillian Zucker was installed as president of business ops, has been completely overhauled on both sides of the ledger. I just have a gut feeling Powell will finally get his walking papers after the season is done; his longtime guys were just replaced within the last summer or two, and even though they gave a new cushy title ("Head Athletic Trainer and Director of Medical Services"), this franchise has been dealing with misdiagnosed injuries for nearly two decades now. Maybe it's about time for him to go.

[og15]

Jason Powell is a trainer though, it should be the doctors diagnosing the injuries, not him.

[playaloc916]

Jason Powell is a trainer though, it should be the doctors diagnosing the injuries, not him.

Sort of off-topic, but who remembers this? Jasen Powell tearing his achilles tendon:

https://clippers.newssurge.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-10754.html

I know achilles tendon tears are mostly freak accidents, but some of the comments on that thread are pretty funny.

[donemilio21]

I actually enjoy eating Kale!

me too. Salmon and kale is a good combo.

[Quake Griffin]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24185476/danny-green-says-played-san-antonio-spurs-season-undiagnosed-groin-tear


Big Baby D---
Big Baby Green???

[Ranma]

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[esqtvd]

jumping up and down a million times before you're 18, especially on asphalt and cement, is probably bad for you

[NippySudz]

I'm hoping this year, they clean the house. How can kawhi sign with this team knowing the medical staff is historically bad? I never knew it was this bad. I really hope they can the guys and bring in new guys in addition to kawhi's personal medical staff.

[Ranma]

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Tom Haberstroh, TheUndefeated.com (7/6/19)

But it all comes down to player health, a department of the NBA that has undergone a sea change in the last decade. Load management has become NBA parlance. Top sports scientists from as far as Australia have joined the NBA in droves. Fancy new practice facilities basically rival NASA’s astronaut training centers.

The Clippers are a shiny example of this global wave. The Thunder’s former director of sports science during their 2012 Finals run, Mark Simpson, is now running the Clippers’ health department. Simpson, a British performance guru in the cycling world before joining the NBA about a decade ago, joined the Clippers in 2016 as part of the team’s organizational overhaul under Ballmer.

In 2016, in the aftermath of the Donald Sterling era, Doc Rivers told me: “We were just behind. They didn’t spend money before.”

Simpson and long-time head athletic trainer Jasen Powell will have their hands full. The Clippers are title favorites, with one significant caveat -- if Leonard and George are healthy. You could say that about any star duo in the NBA, but Leonard and George in particular have two of the shakiest medical histories in the sport. Leonard missed all of nine games in 2017-18 dealing with a mysterious quad injury.

Clippers Transform Into a Favorite After Kawhi Leonard, Paul George Double Dip