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

[TheNewEra]

My issue is teams need to quit being rewarded with tv exposure. They should be able to pull that game and put sixers/jazz on instead.

They do and probably will replace it on the fly

[NBA Sheady]

The NBA makes it up as they go along with who is fined and who is not.

Kawhi has a chronic injury he will have for the rest of his life. A team can't be fined if they have bonafide medical reasons for resting a player.

[mudsak]

I guess we can expect Kawhi to just play ever other game all year?

[Dupp]

I don’t care but people need to chill on ranking him high all time. Dudes had two elite seasons and 1 and a half elite playoff runs. His resume doesn’t stack up to the top 20 -30 guys.

[TheGOATWill]

Where do I find that Kobe “soft” gif??

[scrabbarista]

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

If the Clippers and Kawhi feel they gain more from not playing, then the Clippers and Kawhi are smart not to play. It's a question of incentives. The real discussion about this should be all about where and what the incentives are - and for whom.

[scrabbarista]

I don’t care but people need to chill on ranking him high all time. Dudes had two elite seasons and 1 and a half elite playoff runs. His resume doesn’t stack up to the top 20 -30 guys.

54th!

(Before this season started.)

[Colbinii]

I don’t care but people need to chill on ranking him high all time. Dudes had two elite seasons and 1 and a half elite playoff runs. His resume doesn’t stack up to the top 20 -30 guys.

54th!

(Before this season started.)

My man!

[Colbinii]

I guess we can expect Kawhi to just play ever other game all year?

75% like last year.

[Tor_Raps]

The nba will never shorten the season. Too much money lost. There needs to be a system though. If a player cant prove an injury he has to pay. Its outrageous that the league expects us to pay to watch games on league pass and pay for tickets and then allow star players to sit and collect a check

The broadcast company's need to negotiate this in their next deal. They are the ones paying billions of dollars which are going into the players pockets. Once the players start seeing their income shrink, things will fall into place. If there are no repercussions then I don't blame Kawhi and the Clippers for doing what's best for them. This just isn't what's best for the NBA.

[QRich3]

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.

AFAIK it comes from the Spurs always calling the injury "right quadriceps tendinopathy" in press releases and stuff, which is apparently "a disease of the tendon that has a degenerative effect on the muscle by keeping it in a constant state of exhaustion". At the moment it seems Kawhi disagreed with the diagnosis, but he never said so officially and with time we've seen the injury never really went away. So I guess most people went with that diagnosis as the right one.

As for the load management thing, it's funny to see that all the people complaining about it are guys who already had a dislike for Kawhi, but the whining always comes in the name of his fans and how unfair it is to them. Yet most of his actual fans, and the fans of his team, are more than fine with it.

If the worry is about his legacy and his place on all-time lists because of stuff like this, I'm pretty sure he couldn't care less about that stuff, so go ahead and downgrade him on your lists for his regular season rest. The guy has his sight in the stuff that's is awarded in June.

[ThunderBolt]

My issue is teams need to quit being rewarded with tv exposure. They should be able to pull that game and put sixers/jazz on instead.

They do and probably will replace it on the fly

No they don't. Last week the jazz/clippers was still on tv. I already saw a commerical for Giannis/Lou Williams being hyped by espn. Pelicans are still being broadcast despite Zion's injury.

[HBK_Kliq_33]

Its so unnecessary and outdated to play all 82 games these days, especially when you're preparing for a big playoff run. He is sitting out the 1st half of every back to back which will put him at 71 games, I don't see the problem with that.

Lakers are handling anthony davis poorly, he's probably going to break down by the playoffs. Even though LeBron doesn't let AD do much anyway, it's still risky with that guy.

[TheNewEra]

My issue is teams need to quit being rewarded with tv exposure. They should be able to pull that game and put sixers/jazz on instead.

They do and probably will replace it on the fly

No they don't. Last week the jazz/clippers was still on tv. I already saw a commerical for Giannis/Lou Williams being hyped by espn. Pelicans are still being broadcast despite Zion's injury.

Thought this was a NBA TV game. Don’t have cable

[TheNewEra]

Would be hilarious if we won the Bucks game but failed to beat Portland

[KayDee35]

Clippers are regretting getting him for sure. I know the Raps were salty about him not playing every game and couldn't wait to get rid of him.

Even when he's on the court he's coasting as you can tell by his Usage Rate of 40 and PER of 35.

Is Kawhi the new Durant? Y'know, with the easy path to the playoffs and a ring this year? Asking for a friend.

[Jadoogar]

I hate the load management stuff but the problem is that Raptors and Kawhi proved that it works. Obviously no one can stop a freak injury but managing minutes seems to directly correlate with healthier playoffs. The problem is the NBA season is so long that missing a few games doesn't mean much. Kawhi missed 22 games last year and raptors were still the second seed. Granted they play in the East, maybe if this costs the Clippers a couple of playoffs seeds and they end up in a bad matchup or lose homecourt in the second round, teams will start reconsidering load management.

[Yeezus_]

Kawhi seems like he needs to put in 100% effort every time he plays for the Clippers this season.

[ThunderBolt]

They do and probably will replace it on the fly

No they don't. Last week the jazz/clippers was still on tv. I already saw a commerical for Giannis/Lou Williams being hyped by espn. Pelicans are still being broadcast despite Zion's injury.

Thought this was a NBA TV game. Don’t have cable

I can live with those games but its the TNT, ESPN and ABC games that really bother me. NBA TV is a luxury but these games are the ones that are specifically picked by the networks as premier games.

[The Laker Kid]

The teams should offer a rebate or partial refund on the games where superstars didn’t play. It’s only fair for the fans.