Kawhi Leonard

[nickhx2]

b2b list looks pretty reasonable. should be a lot of totally winnable games if, say kawhi is sitting and pg is in full gear.

[QRich3]

The Spurs lost Kawhi because their medical staff did not listen to him about his leg.

Here is video from Oct 20,2017 of Kawhi boarding a team charter:

Read on Twitter

/video/1

His first game that season was 12/12/2017. He was done for the year less than 30 days later. From that video, he certainly didn't look like a guy that was capable of really playing by December. The Spurs medical staff didn't listen to him and his teammates didn't back him. Those are the reasons he is no longer there.

So, if Kawhi needs a night off, I am OK with it. He didn't play a single back to back last year. Remember, there are no back to backs in the playoffs and that is the season that Kawhi is most concerned about.

Kinda stretch. The spurs are the ones that told him his injury was chronic and Kawhi didn't want to believe that it was. Til this day, kawhi has never acknowledged he has any chronic injury. We only speculate that he does based on the spurs report and the evidence from the po season.

Both things can be true though, the Spurs did diagnose the chronic condition indeed, and reports at the time were that Kawhi didn’t want to hear none of it, but according to the interview his uncle did with Chis Haynes after last season, some time after the diagnosis, the Spurs insisted that he could play even though he was telling them he was still hurting. I guess both things helped nudge him out of there, which he might’ve already been thinking anyway.

[esqtvd]

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[Clemenza]

We're taking a beating off this incident in the media and in the city. I know some of you guys don't give a sh*t but tired of always being the hated franchise. How do we now get Kawhi and PG and still have to deal with controversy? Its tiring asf. This latest incident feels like Donald Sterling is still lurking somewhere deep in the background behind the scenes.

I think there's two things there:
- It was a nationally televised game against the MVP
- We beat the Lakers in Game 1 and many people in the media treated it as Kawhi taking the reigns from LeBron. Now LeBron has responded well and Kawhi is sitting. So some in the media are saying, how can you take the reigns sitting this much?

The latter part and any other criticisms of LM (in and of itself) don't bother me. Guy has an issue with his quad and we have to take care of it. These people are fickle. If we ran Kawhi into the ground and damaged his leg, they'd switch sides and **** on us for not handling his health properly.

Yeah the thing is, outside of the one team cities, LA is probably the only true NBA first city in the league where as the NFL actually takes a backseat to basketball. Like that old Jay-Z line, "the streets is watching" -in other words the city is watching. You took down the "King" in game 1, "Kawhi-Town" debuts all over the airwaves and the city is buzzing but now you sitting during the next big matchup??? It just doesn't fly here in LA point blank. Load Management- yes I'm all for it. Sit out tonight against Portland. I also heard on the radio that you also have "practice load management". So he could've sat out tonight's game and sat out practices/shoot-around on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if they have those. Last night was our time to hammer down another point in the city to let people know who's who and what's what on national television. The NBA is a different animal in LA- you have to play that game if you're healthy.

[nickhx2]

or what

[NippySudz]

The Spurs lost Kawhi because their medical staff did not listen to him about his leg.

Here is video from Oct 20,2017 of Kawhi boarding a team charter:

Read on Twitter

/video/1

His first game that season was 12/12/2017. He was done for the year less than 30 days later. From that video, he certainly didn't look like a guy that was capable of really playing by December. The Spurs medical staff didn't listen to him and his teammates didn't back him. Those are the reasons he is no longer there.

So, if Kawhi needs a night off, I am OK with it. He didn't play a single back to back last year. Remember, there are no back to backs in the playoffs and that is the season that Kawhi is most concerned about.

Kinda stretch. The spurs are the ones that told him his injury was chronic and Kawhi didn't want to believe that it was. Til this day, kawhi has never acknowledged he has any chronic injury. We only speculate that he does based on the spurs report and the evidence from the po season.

Both things can be true though, the Spurs did diagnose the chronic condition indeed, and reports at the time were that Kawhi didn’t want to hear none of it, but according to the interview his uncle did with Chis Haynes after last season, some time after the diagnosis, the Spurs insisted that he could play even though he was telling them he was still hurting. I guess both things helped nudge him out of there, which he might’ve already been thinking anyway.

Reports said spurs were complicit in letting him sit out whole yr but kawhi didn't want to be ruled out for the season.

Who knows what is true. The fact is he had a chronic condition that he didn't think was chronic and I guess moving forward no one can expect this guy to play 65+ games if they want deep championship runs. the clippers aren't going to get a free agent like kawhi in free agency again

It sucks but I guess if you told me the clippers could get a top 3 player and this had to come along with it, I'm sure many would say yes. Sign me up.

But make no mistake about it. It does suck

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

[NippySudz]

The Spurs lost Kawhi because their medical staff did not listen to him about his leg.

Here is video from Oct 20,2017 of Kawhi boarding a team charter:

Read on Twitter

/video/1

His first game that season was 12/12/2017. He was done for the year less than 30 days later. From that video, he certainly didn't look like a guy that was capable of really playing by December. The Spurs medical staff didn't listen to him and his teammates didn't back him. Those are the reasons he is no longer there.

So, if Kawhi needs a night off, I am OK with it. He didn't play a single back to back last year. Remember, there are no back to backs in the playoffs and that is the season that Kawhi is most concerned about.

Kinda stretch. The spurs are the ones that told him his injury was chronic and Kawhi didn't want to believe that it was. Til this day, kawhi has never acknowledged he has any chronic injury. We only speculate that he does based on the spurs report and the evidence from the po season.

from that video, he should have been left home in San Antonio, not shlepping around airports

the Clips left Kawhi back in LA when we gave him the Jazz game off
good thinking

Doc said the Clippers came to Lou in the summer and warned him he was gonna get heavy minutes over the first 10 games with PG out and some back-to-backs on the schedule

which was also very cool


Lou needs his workload cut back and some games off himself
a heroic 39 minutes and 34 points vs the Bucks @ a team-best plus+8, but he still was only 9-27

Doc also said that Lou was going to get rest because hes the oldest guy on the team. When asked about kawhi, he likes to do these redherrings when he talks about resting other players as if theyre going to get the same type of rest program . Really disingenuous on his part.

I can't watch these doc post conferences. He always tries to wiggle out of stuff.

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

[esqtvd]

Kinda stretch. The spurs are the ones that told him his injury was chronic and Kawhi didn't want to believe that it was. Til this day, kawhi has never acknowledged he has any chronic injury. We only speculate that he does based on the spurs report and the evidence from the po season.

from that video, he should have been left home in San Antonio, not shlepping around airports

the Clips left Kawhi back in LA when we gave him the Jazz game off
good thinking

Doc said the Clippers came to Lou in the summer and warned him he was gonna get heavy minutes over the first 10 games with PG out and some back-to-backs on the schedule

which was also very cool


Lou needs his workload cut back and some games off himself
a heroic 39 minutes and 34 points vs the Bucks @ a team-best plus+8, but he still was only 9-27

Doc also said that Lou was going to get rest because hes the oldest guy on the team. When asked about kawhi, he likes to do these redherrings when he talks about resting other players as if theyre going to get the same type of rest program . Really disingenuous on his part.

I can't watch these doc post conferences. He always tries to wiggle out of stuff.

OK, then don't. I found it instructive, and very cool they foresaw all this and warned Lou months ago. Kawhi obviously has some chronic stuff and everybody's good with the no back-to-back thing.

Lou only exerts himself on one end of the court anyway so he only needs half as much rest.

[QRich3]

Kinda stretch. The spurs are the ones that told him his injury was chronic and Kawhi didn't want to believe that it was. Til this day, kawhi has never acknowledged he has any chronic injury. We only speculate that he does based on the spurs report and the evidence from the po season.

Both things can be true though, the Spurs did diagnose the chronic condition indeed, and reports at the time were that Kawhi didn’t want to hear none of it, but according to the interview his uncle did with Chis Haynes after last season, some time after the diagnosis, the Spurs insisted that he could play even though he was telling them he was still hurting. I guess both things helped nudge him out of there, which he might’ve already been thinking anyway.

Reports said spurs were complicit in letting him sit out whole yr but kawhi didn't want to be ruled out for the season.

Who knows what is true. The fact is he had a chronic condition that he didn't think was chronic and I guess moving forward no one can expect this guy to play 65+ games if they want deep championship runs. the clippers aren't going to get a free agent like kawhi in free agency again

It sucks but I guess if you told me the clippers could get a top 3 player and this had to come along with it, I'm sure many would say yes. Sign me up.

But make no mistake about it. It does suck

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

Those reports came from Spurs beat writers and are what Spurs fans cling to when putting all of the blame in Kawhi's side, but his uncle (ie- Kawhi himself) said this:

Leonard and Robertson have never openly addressed why the three-time All-Star requested a trade from the Spurs last offseason. For much of the 2017-18 season, Leonard battled a right quad injury and it limited him to just nine games.

Over time, the Spurs’ medical staff cleared him to play. Leonard sought a second opinion from an outside source and it was recommended that he continued rehabbing. The organization’s position caused teammates to question if Leonard had ulterior motives. That — along with constant leaks to the media detailing how frustrated the Spurs were with the ordeal — was the beginning of the end of a relationship that had otherwise been relatively healthy for six years.

Robertson revealed why it was time for Leonard to go elsewhere.

“I think it just became a lack of trust,” Robertson told Yahoo Sports. “They didn’t believe Kawhi couldn’t play and that caused a lack of trust in us and then us not believing in them. Any time a player says he’s not capable of playing, you should believe him. Why would Kawhi just stop playing all of a sudden? He’s a competitor. Sometimes you get these team doctors telling you what you can and cannot do, and Kawhi was just in too much pain to get out there. This was a serious issue. They didn’t believe him, and after that, the relationship couldn’t recover and we decided we had to move on.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/kawhi-leonards-uncle-dennis-hes-ready-for-this-moment-222416017.html

I tend to believe both sides were at fault and it was just a misunderstanding gone too far, cause if you take the Spurs side at face value (or what their beat reporters said), it just makes no sense at all what was going through Kawhi's head. Just can't go with reports that paint one side as always in the right and the other as always in the wrong.

But yeah, whatever Kawhi refused to believe, it's become evident that whatever he has is chronic if he keeps having trouble with it more than two years after, and yeah, it does suck, but it is what it is. The best they manage it for him to be ready for the postseason, the better for everyone.

[nickhx2]

agree

[NippySudz]

Both things can be true though, the Spurs did diagnose the chronic condition indeed, and reports at the time were that Kawhi didn’t want to hear none of it, but according to the interview his uncle did with Chis Haynes after last season, some time after the diagnosis, the Spurs insisted that he could play even though he was telling them he was still hurting. I guess both things helped nudge him out of there, which he might’ve already been thinking anyway.

Reports said spurs were complicit in letting him sit out whole yr but kawhi didn't want to be ruled out for the season.

Who knows what is true. The fact is he had a chronic condition that he didn't think was chronic and I guess moving forward no one can expect this guy to play 65+ games if they want deep championship runs. the clippers aren't going to get a free agent like kawhi in free agency again

It sucks but I guess if you told me the clippers could get a top 3 player and this had to come along with it, I'm sure many would say yes. Sign me up.

But make no mistake about it. It does suck

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

Those reports came from Spurs beat writers and are what Spurs fans cling to when putting all of the blame in Kawhi's side, but his uncle (ie- Kawhi himself) said this:

Leonard and Robertson have never openly addressed why the three-time All-Star requested a trade from the Spurs last offseason. For much of the 2017-18 season, Leonard battled a right quad injury and it limited him to just nine games.

Over time, the Spurs’ medical staff cleared him to play. Leonard sought a second opinion from an outside source and it was recommended that he continued rehabbing. The organization’s position caused teammates to question if Leonard had ulterior motives. That — along with constant leaks to the media detailing how frustrated the Spurs were with the ordeal — was the beginning of the end of a relationship that had otherwise been relatively healthy for six years.

Robertson revealed why it was time for Leonard to go elsewhere.

“I think it just became a lack of trust,” Robertson told Yahoo Sports. “They didn’t believe Kawhi couldn’t play and that caused a lack of trust in us and then us not believing in them. Any time a player says he’s not capable of playing, you should believe him. Why would Kawhi just stop playing all of a sudden? He’s a competitor. Sometimes you get these team doctors telling you what you can and cannot do, and Kawhi was just in too much pain to get out there. This was a serious issue. They didn’t believe him, and after that, the relationship couldn’t recover and we decided we had to move on.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/kawhi-leonards-uncle-dennis-hes-ready-for-this-moment-222416017.html

I tend to believe both sides were at fault and it was just a misunderstanding gone too far, cause if you take the Spurs side at face value (or what their beat reporters said), it just makes no sense at all what was going through Kawhi's head. Just can't go with reports that paint one side as always in the right and the other as always in the wrong.

But yeah, whatever Kawhi refused to believe, it's become evident that whatever he has is chronic if he keeps having trouble with it more than two years after, and yeah, it does suck, but it is what it is. The best they manage it for him to be ready for the postseason, the better for everyone.

Yeah I'd agree with that. Just a lack of communication. They probably realized him limping all summer that he actually couldn't play.

I wonder how much do the spurs miss Leonard. Hes the only Marquee name to walk away from the spurs at the height of his career. No other spur ever did that.

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[Quake Griffin]

A $50,000 fine eh?

Well...

[Clemenza]

Read on Twitter

[Quake Griffin]

Read on Twitter

[Quake Griffin]

Read on Twitter

[QRich3]

haha Jesus Doc when will you learn to shut up

Essentially the team sent medical info proving he's not right and needs to be rested, and the league agreed. Then Doc comes in and says he's perfectly fine, but he's only perfectly fine because of the amazing job they're doing with the rest, and the league fines him cause they just can't have him publicly contradict them, and what the team told them in private.

Doc will just never change lol, he gets in so many unnecessary messes for trying to put make up on situations that don't need any

[nickhx2]

what an idiot

[Quake Griffin]

Anybody have a quote of what Doc said?

I see Twitter heads saying the Doc characterized his health as "fine".

GTFOH. I doubt he was giving a medical diagnosis as an expert.... and the term fine is broad. To me I just read that as he can play. Duh. I'd never read that to say that Kawhi doesn't need rest to manage his injury.

[QRich3]

Read on Twitter

Yah I figured that was Doc's way of telling the press to leave Kawhi alone. Still unnecessary, if the info needs to be out there cause the league says so, let the info be out there.

[Yogatti]

Steve Balmer should tell Doc Rivers to stfu or just fire him. Overrated coach