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

[timO]

Hes not playing the b2b, how many the clips have? 15?

[liamliam1234]

ESPN’s Doris Burke made some interesting remarks about the Clippers’ decision to rest Kawhi Leonard and I completely agree. What a joke this “load management” has become especially so early in the season.

“It is mind-boggling to me that Kawhi Leonard doesn’t want to play against the reigning MVP and he’d rather play against Portland tomorrow night on TNT,” Doris Burke said on Wedneday morning’s episode of Golic and Wingo. “Kawhi not playing is ridiculous at this point.”

Doris is sensationalizing this. Kawhi doesn't care about the regular season at all.

Pitching a fit because she does not get to manufacture any antipathy between two star players.

[OkcSinceSGA]

League should of forced Kawhi to play tonight, sit tomorrow. Skipping the better team, on national TV is a bad look

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[OkcSinceSGA]

Hes not playing the b2b, how many the clips have? 15?

13

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[Johnny Bball]

He is sitting out a home game tho? All the madness in this thread and people can't even back up their own statements.

From the guy that claimed people were lying about Kawhi and Doc saying theywouldn't load manage him and the goal was to play all 82... this is comically hypocritical.

Coming from the guy who instead of quoting the post in which I proved your take was wrong, you quoted an different post to once again fit your narrative? That's whats comical. They never once said they wouldn't load manage. I said that in my post to you. But you ignored it. They just said it wouldn't be as severe. But oh, please keep stating your narrative as fact without proper evidence.

I quoted the post you were hypocritical in... because that's what this post was about. Claimed an entire post was a lie when it was entirely not so. Backed it up with zero facts. That should be clear now.

Lol at it being other folks having the narrative here Clips fan.

none of us care if he load manages. Not my ticket money. I do question why they weren't honest. Running theme.

[Michael Jordan]

Ask Raptor fans if they're livid with their organization for resting their finals MVP for meaningless regular season games.

Then look at Joel Embiid, Bledsoe, Lowry, and Klay in the playoffs last year. Fatigue will eventually catch up to them if they don't take care of themselves during the season.

I understand people wanna say its "bad for business" but whats worse for business is injured players during the playoffs. Fatigue dramatically increases the probability of injuries.

Yeah, but the regular season is what pays the bulk of the bills for owners, players and Adam Silver. If the narrative becomes.... "the regular season doesn't matter" that's worse for business than one or two superstars missing the playoffs. People are used to that... it's been happening like that forever. And it confirms that they played hard during the year. It has honor and integrity.

That said, the Raptors situation is completely different. Kawhi was still injured last year and confirmed he isn't injured this year. He's a healthy scratch tonight ... 6 games in.... for the 2nd time. That's crazy.

The NBA needs to fix the regular season to eliminate back-to-backs and provide better spacing IMO

[Ado05]

People are still complaining about load management despite seeing how much of a success it was for Kawhi last year?

Lol.

[levon]

All this whining and all I see is a guy poised to get his third ring come June.

Impressed that the Clips also don't give a damn about the school kids,

Is that why they're going around schools handing out Clipper merch?

No professional athlete should be getting cookies for disregarding fans. There are a lot of stupid sports opinions in Twitterverse and TV, but being skeptical of the effect of load management for the first, more difficult game of a back to back at home on playoff performance is not one of them.

[1bigfan13]

At some point network partners like ESPN and TNT are going to get fed up with this because this stuff is costing them money.

When all star players sit, fewer fans tune into the game.

When fewer fans tune into the game, ratings take a big dip meaning there are also fewer eyes on sponsors products…..whether that be in stadium logos, on-screen branding, or TV commercials. That’s millions in ad money spent that companies have paid out for air time that will be largely wasted.

If the players keep going down this road I think there’s the potential that network and business partners will offer up less money because players aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.

It’s as if the players don’t understand that these deals with the TV networks help drive their salaries up. When new TV deals are signed, the salary cap increases significantly, which allows teams to pay these players the absurd amount of money they’re making. I just don’t understand why anyone would intentionally antagonize the people responsible for adding tens of millions of dollars into their bank accounts.

[Official]

Lets not pretend that Kawhi's load management is a continued recipe for success or the even remotely the main ingredient to his success last year. The main ingredient to his success last year was KD (or the lack thereof).

[ATLTimekeeper]

ESPN’s Doris Burke made some interesting remarks about the Clippers’ decision to rest Kawhi Leonard and I completely agree. What a joke this “load management” has become especially so early in the season.

“It is mind-boggling to me that Kawhi Leonard doesn’t want to play against the reigning MVP and he’d rather play against Portland tomorrow night on TNT,” Doris Burke said on Wedneday morning’s episode of Golic and Wingo. “Kawhi not playing is ridiculous at this point.”

Doris is sensationalizing this. Kawhi doesn't care about the regular season at all.

Pitching a fit because she does not get to manufacture any antipathy between two star players.

I can't forgive her for using Marc Gasol's championship podium question to force him to talk about Zach Randolph

[Jabroni Lames]

Ask Raptor fans if they're livid with their organization for resting their finals MVP for meaningless regular season games.

Then look at Joel Embiid, Bledsoe, Lowry, and Klay in the playoffs last year. Fatigue will eventually catch up to them if they don't take care of themselves during the season.

I understand people wanna say its "bad for business" but whats worse for business is injured players during the playoffs. Fatigue dramatically increases the probability of injuries.

Yeah, but the regular season is what pays the bulk of the bills for owners, players and Adam Silver. If the narrative becomes.... "the regular season doesn't matter" that's worse for business than one or two superstars missing the playoffs. People are used to that... it's been happening like that forever. And it confirms that they played hard during the year. It has honor and integrity.

That said, the Raptors situation is completely different. Kawhi was still injured last year and confirmed he isn't injured this year. He's a healthy scratch tonight ... 6 games in.... for the 2nd time. That's crazy.

The NBA needs to fix the regular season to eliminate back-to-backs and provide better spacing IMO

The league already shortened the pre-season to reduce B2Bs. I guess they could take it even further and start the pre-season a few weeks earlier. I mean, they did that already and Kawhi is still load managing the same as last year.

There's only so much you can do with an 82 game schedule when you're trying to optimize travel & arena availability and other events (like the All-star game) between 30 parties. At some point, the marquee guys have to play or it hurts the NBA's brand.

And Lowry did just fine in last year's playoffs. Possibly his best game of the year, in the last game of the season. No sign of fatigue whatsoever. Bledsoe just can't shoot 3's consistently - that has nothing to do with fatigue. Embiid had stomach issues... not fatigue. Klay was on fire until he got hurt on a freak play... again not fatigue at all.

[Jabroni Lames]

People are still complaining about load management despite seeing how much of a success it was for Kawhi last year?

Lol.

Kawhi said he was still hurt last year, so it was justified.

[Lowtech801]

Here we go again folks.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/kawhi-leonard-wont-play-against-bucks-and-the-nba-is-fine-with-it/ar-AAJUBiQ

I am not bitter because I took him at pick 17 in my fantasy draft but this is ridiculous. The NBA makes it up as they go along with who is fined and who is not.
Why not just play the guy very limited minutes in certain games (mostly in the second half when it counts) instead of sitting out games, let me guess it would affect his stats per game so he wont do it - pathetic.

He doesn't play in back to back games how hard is that to comprehend? Are we gonna have another post about this next week when he misses one of the rockets/pelicans game?

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[LoveTheNBA23]

National media already turned on Kawhi a bit during free agency. Now you are seeing more and more media members calling him out.

[pwrshft99]

If load management was indeed the concern, why not a minutes restriction instead? Play off the bench in the second game of a back to back, as needed.

Your best player on the sidelines and healthy gives you a better chance of winning then him being ruled out of the game and in street clothes.
I'm fine with a minutes restriction in back to backs, even if the situation arises where he isn't needed in the second game, say a blowout. But if your are healthy, be dressed and available for your team, and your fans.

[RRyder823]

Yeah, but the regular season is what pays the bulk of the bills for owners, players and Adam Silver. If the narrative becomes.... "the regular season doesn't matter" that's worse for business than one or two superstars missing the playoffs. People are used to that... it's been happening like that forever. And it confirms that they played hard during the year. It has honor and integrity.

That said, the Raptors situation is completely different. Kawhi was still injured last year and confirmed he isn't injured this year. He's a healthy scratch tonight ... 6 games in.... for the 2nd time. That's crazy.

The NBA needs to fix the regular season to eliminate back-to-backs and provide better spacing IMO

The league already shortened the pre-season to reduce B2Bs. I guess they could take it even further and start the pre-season a few weeks earlier. I mean, they did that already and Kawhi is still load managing the same as last year.

There's only so much you can do with an 82 game schedule when you're trying to optimize travel & arena availability and other events (like the All-star game) between 30 parties. At some point, the marquee guys have to play or it hurts the NBA's brand.

And Lowry did just fine in last year's playoffs. Possibly his best game of the year, in the last game of the season. No sign of fatigue whatsoever. Bledsoe just can't shoot 3's consistently - that has nothing to do with fatigue. Embiid had stomach issues... not fatigue. Klay was on fire until he got hurt on a freak play... again not fatigue at all.

Yeah those examples were just plain bad. Lowry played good through the POs, Klay injury wasnt fatigue related and Bledsoe just lost his nerves (not to mention he averaged a whopping 29 minutes a game in the rs so are we supposed to load manage every player in the league?)

I guess you could make the argument the Embiid, stomach issues aside, had a habit of showing a propensity for getting tired late but that has more to do with just strait endurance then him getting run down

The NBA has a problem. The regular season JUST started and the two biggest stories are where a player will play two years from now and star players missing marquee games. That's not good for the league no matter how people want to spin it

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[An Unbiased Fan]

Lets not pretend that Kawhi's load management is a continued recipe for success or the even remotely the main ingredient to his success last year. The main ingredient to his success last year was KD (or the lack thereof).

And Embiid's injury too

[RRyder823]

If load management was indeed the concern, why not a minutes restriction instead? Play off the bench in the second game of a back to back, as needed.

Your best player on the sidelines and healthy gives you a better chance of winning then him being ruled out of the game and in street clothes.
I'm fine with a minutes restriction in back to backs, even if the situation arises where he isn't needed in the second game, say a blowout. But if your are healthy, be dressed and available for your team, and your fans.

You'll still have fans accusing teams of running their players ragged. A team like the Bucks only has two players wavering 30 minutes a game but yet still fans say they need to use more load management

Load management later in the season after fatigue actually starts setting in is fine but this early, during a marquee game, is just a big middle finger though

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[1bigfan13]

Here’s another thing that bugs me about this load management thing.

Today’s players have no room to cry about the schedule. Who cares if you have to play the occasional back to back game or if you're have to play 3 games in 4 nights every once in a while. I get that it’s tiring and difficult. But guess what….THAT’S WHY THEY’RE BEING PAID 20, 30, AND 40 MILLION DOLLARS!!!! If it were easy and everyone could do it then they wouldn’t be paid the amount they’re being paid.

I would be more understanding of the whole load management thing if the NBA were like the NFL where there are thousands of ex-players struggling with serious medical issues after their playing career, but for the most part, NBA retirees retire in relatively good health. Great players spanning multiple generations (Jabbar, Jerry West, Oscar, Jordan, Ewing, Magic, McHale, etc.) who didn’t have near the amenities or ease of travel of today’s players, easily played 15+ seasons w/o load management and all but a very small number are in good health.