Power Puff Kawhi is out again - Load Management Folks, Folk You!

[Forte IV]

NBA will eventually step in and fine the clippers if this keeps happening on nationally televised games. Owners wont like it when it starts affecting their revenue.

Apparently both game were pre-approved by the league.

[Ranger One]

The amount of blatant ignorance in this thread is staggering. No Kawhi is not injured, BUT he has a degenerative quad condition which flares up due to overuse. As such, he will never be a full season player. Ever. Part of keeping him healthy and the quad from flaring up is regular load management. Otherwise he'll start limping and be very limited in his ability to play the game at full strength. You can't compare Kawhi to all the other stars because they don't have a permanent, degenerative condition to deal with.

[Michael Lucky]

NBA will eventually step in and fine the clippers if this keeps happening on nationally televised games. Owners wont like it when it starts affecting their revenue.

Apparently both game were pre-approved by the league.

For now. Ratings are lower and if revenue goes down that will quickly change

[Forte IV]

That was always the oddest part of all this, that they didn't go in expecting to load manage this. It is like leonard is still refusing to accept the reality that his injury is degenerative and simply won't go away. He's going to have to play through it and load manage the rest of his career no matter how much he'd like to believe otherwise.

Can someone actually provide me evidence its a degenerative injury? There's never been any official report of this and people are just claiming it as fact. I'm genuinely curious.

I'm sure one of the spurs fans who's tracked every second of leonard's life will have it

See thats what I'm getting at. People start reading things that have never been officially announced and start stating it as fact. I swear people have started to believe everything they read on the internet the last few years. Some random person said Paul George would miss the first two months of the regular season and people started claiming that as fact. He's slated to probably debut next week. Stop believing everything you read without anything official. If it's been officially diagnosed then fine, but it hasn't.

[Michael Lucky]

The amount of blatant ignorance in this thread is staggering. No Kawhi is not injured, BUT he has a degenerative quad condition which flares up due to overuse. As such, he will never be a full season player. Ever. Part of keeping him healthy and the quad from flaring up is regular load management. Otherwise he'll start limping and be very limited in his ability to play the game at full strength. You can't compare Kawhi to all the other stars because they don't have a permanent, degenerative condition to deal with.

I think the point here is that he should play the nationally televised game and sit the next day. Not the opposite.

[brutalitops]

This is ridiculous. A 28 year old superstar in his prime has to sit out every fourth game so he doesn't fall apart? On top of only playing 30 mpg? Pitiful. The only reason it "worked" last year was because the Warriors were decimated by injuries. Kawhi is a part-time player at this point.

Honestly ild trust a team of doctors and physios over you.

[CoachPop]

I'm a jilted Spurs fan, and while I do derive a dark pleasure in seeing the hate Kawhi is getting, I do wonder what people expected. We knew he would be under load management for the rest of his career when he left the Spurs, but I guess some people weren't paying attention or didn't want to believe it. The fact that he won a title last year while load managing makes it impossible, for me at least, to look down on him for being a part-time regular season player from here on out.

[Forte IV]

The amount of blatant ignorance in this thread is staggering. No Kawhi is not injured, BUT he has a degenerative quad condition which flares up due to overuse. As such, he will never be a full season player. Ever. Part of keeping him healthy and the quad from flaring up is regular load management. Otherwise he'll start limping and be very limited in his ability to play the game at full strength. You can't compare Kawhi to all the other stars because they don't have a permanent, degenerative condition to deal with.

I think the point here is that he should play the nationally televised game and sit the next day. Not the opposite.

Except for the fact the Blazers/Clippers game tomorrow is also nationally televised, so your argument is invalid.

[Greyhound]

The face of the league. The “best player on the planet” needs to be playing National TV matchups when healthy. He owes it to the fans and the business.

Heavy is the head who wears the crown.

He is getting the praise and the recognition, he can’t just skip out on the grunt work.

[Benedict_Boozer]

If it means he is healthy enough to make it through the playoffs I don’t care at all. I just don’t want any more playoff series decided by injury; I still haven’t recovered from Chris Paul’s hamstring tear.

Cancel the regular season then - none of these games matter apparently, why are we paying for it and tuning in?

He's getting paid to play, not sit and show up only in playoff games. It's cheating the history of the game, great players play and play for the fans + love of the game.

[dhsilv2]

Can someone actually provide me evidence its a degenerative injury? There's never been any official report of this and people are just claiming it as fact. I'm genuinely curious.

I'm sure one of the spurs fans who's tracked every second of leonard's life will have it

See thats what I'm getting at. People start reading things that have never been officially announced and start stating it as fact. I swear people have started to believe everything they read on the internet the last few years. Some random person said Paul George would miss the first two months of the regular season and people started claiming that as fact. He's slated to probably debut next week. Stop believing everything you read without anything official. If it's been officially diagnosed then fine, but it hasn't.

I mean every thing I've seen has said tenapathy. There's a difference in trust professional news sources and random people on the internet. I'm pretty comfortable with sourced news articles vs reading actual medical or team statements. But hey, I trust experts to do their jobs better than I would.

[Ranger One]

The face of the league. The “best player on the planet” needs to be playing National TV matchups when healthy. He owns it to the fans and the business.

Heavy is the head who wears the crown.

He is getting the praise and the recognition, he can’t just skip out on the grunt work.

Yes he can, and he will. Just how entitled are you? So because fans pay money to see him he's required to play every game? Maybe he should also come to their houses and sign their jerseys too? Lmao

[Tracymcgoaty]

I can’t be the only one amused by OP’s complete failure at sexism. Power Puff Girls were actually superheroes. Did you just remember a phrase with the word “girls” and think, “Yeah, that’ll show ‘em! I’ll compare him to a girl!”

+1’d in case you are right, but I think the easier explanation is that he meant to put “powder puff”.

could be him joking that kawhi is an iron man.

[Tracymcgoaty]

The face of the league. The “best player on the planet” needs to be playing National TV matchups when healthy. He owns it to the fans and the business.

Heavy is the head who wears the crown.

He is getting the praise and the recognition, he can’t just skip out on the grunt work.

Yes he can, and he will. Just how entitled are you? So because fans pay money to see him he's required to play every game? Maybe he should also come to their houses and sign their jerseys too? Lmao

fans have every right to feel entitled..without the fans NBA wont exist. Kawhi wouldn't make millions he wouldn't have endorsments..Fans make the game. Me personally i dont care let him do whatever but i understand the other point of view.

[Simmons25]

Last year I could understand it because of that injury but this year?? Soft.

I believe his quad is a degenerative issue, meaning, he's going to have this problem for life. But I agree, unless it's already bothering him and he has no pain, it's a soft move. It appears he just wants to face up against the "easier" teams.

I guarantee Uncle Dennis and Kawhi are the ones calling the shots here. They probably told the Clippers that he is only joining them if he gets the same treatment he had with Toronto and gets to pick and choose the games he plays in. They basically let him bend them over just to get the deal done.

[nikster]

People need to realize something. The last 3 or so playoff series during the lob city era, were decided because of Clipper injuries. If the team had load managed Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, maybe they would have at the very least gone to the finals. The teams key players were injured when we needed them most, so I'm all for this. Yeah it's a bummer as a fan that he isn't playing, especially now that I'm living in Milwaukee lol (and will probably here it form coworkers). But the NBA is about the post season, not the regular one.

So why all this talk from Kawhi and the coach that there will be no load management?

I don't think there's be nearly as much outrage if they said from the start that he'd be load managing again

Pretty sure the exact quote mentioned that it would be game to game basis. There was no actual quote where Doc or Kawhi said "we will not load manage". People just heard Kawhi say he was fully healthy and assumed that meant no load management. I'm sure he is fully healthy, and perhaps he'll play a b2b in the future, but we'll see.

Not explicitly, but he was fully healthy (and implied his health was the reason they had the load management schedule in toronto) and said his goal was to play the full season. Then Doc said he will not be aggressively load managed... If missing 1 out of 4 games and playing 30 minutes a game isnt agressive load management i dont know what is.

They implied game to game basis but theres no way in hell they didnt know they werent going to 1) Manage his mpg and 2) at least sit him out on back to backs

[Jabroni Lames]

Apparently, Kawhi's reasons for load management goes beyond just being ready for the playoffs. He's thinking really long-term.... he wants to be be able to play with his son (who is less than 1-year old).

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2860805-clippers-kawhi-leonard-says-son-is-motivation-for-postgame-treatments

Read on Twitter

[Forte IV]

So why all this talk from Kawhi and the coach that there will be no load management?

I don't think there's be nearly as much outrage if they said from the start that he'd be load managing again

Pretty sure the exact quote mentioned that it would be game to game basis. There was no actual quote where Doc or Kawhi said "we will not load manage". People just heard Kawhi say he was fully healthy and assumed that meant no load management. I'm sure he is fully healthy, and perhaps he'll play a b2b in the future, but we'll see.

Not explicitly, but he was fully healthy (and implied his health was the reason they had the load management schedule in toronto) and said his goal was to play the full season. Then Doc said he will not be aggressively load managed... If missing 1 out of 4 games and playing 30 minutes a game isnt agressive load management i dont know what is.

They implied game to game basis but theres no way in hell they didnt know they werent going to 1) Manage his mpg and 2) at least sit him out on back to backs

The 30 mpg is misleading because of the Warriors blow out, where he played just 21 minutes, and the Hornets 15 point win, where he played 29. He's averaging 34 mpg the last 2, and unless there are blowouts, will probably be his average most nights.

[PD28]

If it means he is healthy enough to make it through the playoffs I don’t care at all. I just don’t want any more playoff series decided by injury; I still haven’t recovered from Chris Paul’s hamstring tear.

Cancel the regular season then - none of these games matter apparently, why are we paying for it and tuning in?

He's getting paid to play, not sit and show up only in playoff games. It's cheating the history of the game, great players play and play for the fans + love of the game.

I don't think singling out Kawhi is fair but your point will always ring true. Why does the NBA get to make money on a regular season product that does not deliver stars?

[jason bourne]

Oops. I should've read the realgm story before commenting. It's KNEE tendinitis. Ouch, ouch, ouch. The pain. The pain. The pain. It probably hurts more when its cold (another reason he left Toronto?). My condolences Clippers fans (sarcasm).