Kawhi Leonard

[Young Sterling]

Honestly, no clipper fan should be complaining about Kawhi's load management. This isn't some issue that just came up all of a sudden. His teammates thought he was lying from his San Antonio days and that's why he left. I had thought after watching the poor guy limp all the way to a finals MVP, as well as seeing what happens to players who rush injuries for the sake of a selfish media (Klay and KD) that people got the message to respect an athletes body for the long term so that they can keep playing and performing at high levels. Seriously, the media puts so much pressure on players and when they implode, they use that as the next hot topic to discuss or ignore it all together completely (i.e. Lob City Clippers or KD and Klay's force rush to play which led to career changing injuries).

**** the media. **** what other people are saying. We're Clippers, Kawhi has a very medically WEIRD issue (look it up), and we need to support his health. He's not a zoo animal who jumps whenever Doris **** old hag Burke tells him too. I'd like to see her and all these old ass media clowns go through what Kawhi goes through.

People act like we're not about to watch Lou Williams take down Giannis.

[Quake Griffin]

I'm gonna complain.

I live in Wisconsin. This is a nationally televised game. It's my one chance to see the Clippers without hooking up my computer to some stream. Just come home. Put on dinner. Flip the game on just like most LA fans get to do for all 82. It's getting taken from me in order to watch the Load Management Clippers. It's lame. His body isn't going to die playing back to backs. He can sit out Monday vs. the Raptors when nobody is watching or gives a damn even though there's a plotline there that will wear off before tip off.

I expected there's some kind of rules or respectability to this but apparently I was loosely paying attention when Pop and LeBron did this.

Skip the meaningless games.
Be there for the big ones, the big opponents, so we're not substantially missing out on what is left of the fun of an 82 game season.

I saw this Bucks game on the schedule weeks ago and got excited for it. I initially thought it was in Milwaukee and was about to buy tickets, that's how excited I was for it. I'd be furious if I was in LA and I got tickets to see Kawhi v. Giannis again and he was sitting out.

[nickhx2]

my hope is that the nba will realize their gaffe on this one and continue to reduce back to backs, until they eliminate them completely.

[Yogatti]

my hope is that the nba will realize their gaffe on this one and continue to reduce back to backs, until they eliminate them completely.

they made a mistake having these back to back games being on national television knowing Kawhi sat out back to back games last season. Whoever made this schedule is incompetent

[50CalClips]

37.1 Assist Percentage (11th in the NBA)

[50CalClips]

35.0 PER (2nd in the NBA)

[50CalClips]

40.1 Usage Percentage (2nd in the NBA)

[TucsonClip]

Are we going to complain about this all season, despite us all knowing this was going to happen?

[NippySudz]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[NippySudz]

I'm gonna complain.

I live in Wisconsin. This is a nationally televised game. It's my one chance to see the Clippers without hooking up my computer to some stream. Just come home. Put on dinner. Flip the game on just like most LA fans get to do for all 82. It's getting taken from me in order to watch the Load Management Clippers. It's lame. His body isn't going to die playing back to backs. He can sit out Monday vs. the Raptors when nobody is watching or gives a damn even though there's a plotline there that will wear off before tip off.

I expected there's some kind of rules or respectability to this but apparently I was loosely paying attention when Pop and LeBron did this.

Skip the meaningless games.
Be there for the big ones, the big opponents, so we're not substantially missing out on what is left of the fun of an 82 game season.

I saw this Bucks game on the schedule weeks ago and got excited for it. I initially thought it was in Milwaukee and was about to buy tickets, that's how excited I was for it. I'd be furious if I was in LA and I got tickets to see Kawhi v. Giannis again and he was sitting out.

I agree with you. I'm not a doctor but I know back to backs are taxing on the body. That being said, its the beginning of the season. He has a game thursday, the next day off would be until Monday. If he could play in any back to backs, it would have to be this one.

Lets just call it as it is. Kawhi Lied. The clippers lied. They tried their best to downplay load management, with doc saying there was no specific plan, answering "idk" to reporters ahead of a back to back game, twice and kawhi saying he intended to play out the season. Woj tweet just shows they planned this far ahead of his scheduled back to back games that was a load management in place.

I'm glad the nba came out and clarified the issue but they should have been upfront with the fans from day one. Many people speculated that he wouldn't play back to backs, myself included. But I held out a little hope that he'd play at least ONE and in the beginning of the season based on kawhi's comments and the team's comments.

[nickhx2]

Are we going to complain about this all season, despite us all knowing this was going to happen?

lmao i was thinking this exact same thing

maybe we can just put it into a different thread. that way we can use this one to talk about the good stuff, and the people who wanna wallow can have their own place to gripe.

[carlsport]

I understand Load Mgmt from a team and player perspective and respect it. But from a business perspective it absolutely blows and if (when) other players start adopting this full-scale like Kawhi (its a copycat league after all), it is going to cause real fan problems.

Broadcast ratings will be down tonight (would have been the biggest game yet other than Laker/Clipper opening night), eventually reducing what they will pay. Fans are already afraid to pay prices for big Clipper games due to load management. As a partial season ticket plan holder and as someone who shares in full season tickets, I had two sets of tickets for tonight. It was my big game for the year. Taking the wife and the kids. Now no Kawhi. Makes it a lot less interesting and I feel pretty screwed. Until the NBA or Ballmer figure out a way to "load mgmt" my price, I will be cancelling both sets of tickets next year. Only way I can make a difference as a consumer.

League should shorten the regular season and eliminate back to backs. Go to a 72 game season playing your division 4 times, other teams in conf 3 times and opposite conf 2 times. While you're at it, shorten first two rounds of playoffs to best of 5. Of course, since this is for the good of the players and will theoretically lengthen their careers, they'd need to agree to a 10% paycut to accommodate the reduced schedule.

[Clemenza]

Honestly, no clipper fan should be complaining about Kawhi's load management. This isn't some issue that just came up all of a sudden. His teammates thought he was lying from his San Antonio days and that's why he left. I had thought after watching the poor guy limp all the way to a finals MVP, as well as seeing what happens to players who rush injuries for the sake of a selfish media (Klay and KD) that people got the message to respect an athletes body for the long term so that they can keep playing and performing at high levels. Seriously, the media puts so much pressure on players and when they implode, they use that as the next hot topic to discuss or ignore it all together completely (i.e. Lob City Clippers or KD and Klay's force rush to play which led to career changing injuries).

**** the media. **** what other people are saying. We're Clippers, Kawhi has a very medically WEIRD issue (look it up), and we need to support his health. He's not a zoo animal who jumps whenever Doris **** old hag Burke tells him too. I'd like to see her and all these old ass media clowns go through what Kawhi goes through.

People act like we're not about to watch Lou Williams take down Giannis.

cut the crap.. I wanna see Kawhi vs Giannis tonight. F*ck all the dumb sh*t! The MVP is in town and Kawhi's commerical said LA is now "Kawhi-Town". Take the Bucks out back and put them out of their misery for LA.. Then sit out tomorrow against Portland for his load management. There was a good point on Sirius XM NBA radio this morning saying you also have "practice load management" where the player sits out a couple of practices if need be. Love the fact that we have a star like Kawhi but he needs to play tonight point blank. Are you guys basketball fans or not? You don't want to see Kawhi vs Giannis on primetime national tv tonight??? Serious??

[Clemenza]

Are we going to complain about this all season, despite us all knowing this was going to happen?

Load management is fine, I really don't have a problem with it except for a huge matchup-blockbuster game like we have tonight

[nickhx2]

I understand Load Mgmt from a team and player perspective and respect it. But from a business perspective it absolutely blows and if (when) other players start adopting this full-scale like Kawhi (its a copycat league after all), it is going to cause real fan problems.

Broadcast ratings will be down tonight (would have been the biggest game yet other than Laker/Clipper opening night), eventually reducing what they will pay. Fans are already afraid to pay prices for big Clipper games due to load management. As a partial season ticket plan holder and as someone who shares in full season tickets, I had two sets of tickets for tonight. It was my big game for the year. Taking the wife and the kids. Now no Kawhi. Makes it a lot less interesting and I feel pretty screwed. Until the NBA or Ballmer figure out a way to "load mgmt" my price, I will be cancelling both sets of tickets next year. Only way I can make a difference as a consumer.

League should shorten the regular season and eliminate back to backs. Go to a 72 game season playing your division 4 times, other teams in conf 3 times and opposite conf 2 times. While you're at it, shorten first two rounds of playoffs to best of 5. Of course, since this is for the good of the players and will theoretically lengthen their careers, they'd need to agree to a 10% paycut to accommodate the reduced schedule.

totally understandable and i empathize.

[NippySudz]

I understand Load Mgmt from a team and player perspective and respect it. But from a business perspective it absolutely blows and if (when) other players start adopting this full-scale like Kawhi (its a copycat league after all), it is going to cause real fan problems.

Broadcast ratings will be down tonight (would have been the biggest game yet other than Laker/Clipper opening night), eventually reducing what they will pay. Fans are already afraid to pay prices for big Clipper games due to load management. As a partial season ticket plan holder and as someone who shares in full season tickets, I had two sets of tickets for tonight. It was my big game for the year. Taking the wife and the kids. Now no Kawhi. Makes it a lot less interesting and I feel pretty screwed. Until the NBA or Ballmer figure out a way to "load mgmt" my price, I will be cancelling both sets of tickets next year. Only way I can make a difference as a consumer.

League should shorten the regular season and eliminate back to backs. Go to a 72 game season playing your division 4 times, other teams in conf 3 times and opposite conf 2 times. While you're at it, shorten first two rounds of playoffs to best of 5. Of course, since this is for the good of the players and will theoretically lengthen their careers, they'd need to agree to a 10% paycut to accommodate the reduced schedule.

its funny how pro-big business the fans are just for a team. if you go on twitter, reddit, they don't have any issues with the fans getting boned. None whatsoever. They are actually calling frustrated fans "haters" How can someone be a hater just because they were excited to see kawhi play and he's not scheduled to play? Are people freaking serious?

Its amazing how fans act where you dare question a team or their favorite player. They'll let anything slide.

I'm not saying force kawhi to play. All I'm saying is give fans proper notice especially ticket holders because that's messed up. This is not injury he suffered spontaneous, this is a preventative measure so he can be reserved for the tail end of the season.

[nickhx2]

fwiw i think if the team had to pick one it's got some nuance.

i'd rather have kawhi play tonight while the entire team is fresh. instead, we're gonna have him play on the next night where the whole team will be worn out, so i think that hurts our chances at winning the second game.

that said, winning against the blazers matters more for tie-breaker purposes, so there is that.

the other thing that's probably more important than anything is the bucks are a potential finals opponent. keeping kawhi out gives them as little information as possible if that's the case. and if you're doc rivers and you think you are a better coach than the other guy, you'd rather have both teams devoid of information before the first game of the finals.

[Oakville_Raptor]

He can sit out Monday vs. the Raptors when nobody is watching or gives a damn even though there's a plotline there that will wear off before tip off.

I am dying...you have Kawhi Leonard and you're complaining about one stupid game. The Raptors we're 17-5 without him last season and everything obviously worked out.

Suck it up and do what **** of people do these days and watch from a stream. I'll even provide you with a link.

http://nba4free.com/nbastreams/

[Clemenza]

fwiw i think if the team had to pick one it's got some nuance.

i'd rather have kawhi play tonight while the entire team is fresh. instead, we're gonna have him play on the next night where the whole team will be worn out, so i think that hurts our chances at winning the second game.

that said, winning against the blazers matters more for tie-breaker purposes, so there is that.

the other thing that's probably more important than anything is the bucks are a potential finals opponent. keeping kawhi out gives them as little information as possible if that's the case. and if you're doc rivers and you think you are a better coach than the other guy, you'd rather have both teams devoid of information before the first game of the finals.

You guys are overthinking this sh*t. These teams have scouts that go watch other teams all the time. Didn't we have a scout watch Kawhi in Toronto damn near every game last season? Nobody is hiding anything these days unless you have a secret player from out of the blue

[Quake Griffin]

my hope is that the nba will realize their gaffe on this one and continue to reduce back to backs, until they eliminate them completely.

I've been begging for this years.

Until someone proves to me that back to backs are absolutely necessary given some algorithm/ permutation or scheduling conflict, I'm standing by my original assertion that there is no need to have back to backs in the NBA.