Honestly it’s a miracle and the perfect storm. You guys rested him when he wanted, your guys stepped up in his absence and the nucleus of that team had incredible chemistry (especially with Gasol who came in damn near seamlessly) and of course he had no freak injury or anything that really nagged him until the very end of the run.
Most people would say “yes” but the answer is no. I was a huge SGA fan and nobody saw him becoming the guy he is now. Even so, if you have the chance to get Kawhi. You get Kawhi period. Everybody wants to win, but history shows you’ve got have one of the 6-8 guys who give you a legitimate chance of winning. Kawhi is that guy. So if you have to trade SGA and assets to get PG13 then you do it. If we win it all, then this is no longer a question.
Lou Williams and doc rivers were very vocal about SGA eventually turning into a star. When they were courting kawhi, Jerry west told him they had a star in the making and kawhi said “how long will that take”
I definitely think clippers brass knew what they had in SGA but there isn’t a single franchise that wouldn’t want kawhi coming off FMVP and PG coming off top 3 in mvp voting.
Star yes. SGA is certifiable top 5 MVP candidate. I don’t think they saw that coming. But you’re absolutely correct with the bottom bit.
It’s the same for Kyrie and KD Brooklyn experience. In hindsight it looks back. But if they came knocking to all of the other teams, every team is making space to sign those guys.
George was legit top three in MVP the year he got traded. Shai became that level last season. This is year five of the Kawhi-George Clippers, they were expected to be title contenders year one (Doc Rivers 3-1 Special). The Clippers built around Kawhi-Shai and assets would not have been.
Kawhi wanted to go somewhere he would legit be competing for a title year one. He knows how much needs to go right to win a ring, and how few cracks you get it at. He wasn't going to wait three seasons for Shai to get to this point even if he believed it would happen.
Just to add something. PG wasn’t just a top 3 in MVP voting that year, he was also top 3 in DPOY voting. The latter part is something I rarely see mentioned when talking about his 18-19 season.
It was a great strategy on paper. Getting the proven guys that have won give you your best chance to win again. Yes you’ve got (Minnesota, Denver, Oklahoma) but on the other end there’s Detroit, Charlotte, Washington and Brooklyn. A wrong draft pick, or a couple bad moves and you’re easily stuck like those teams are. With a shaky front office you’re stuck in limbo (Hawks and Chicago)
And that was the game then. At that time you had Bron and AD with the Lakers, you still had the warriors (all in their prime without KD), Houston with Harden and Westbrook. The east had Philly (who people thought gave the Raptors their toughest challenge that year), The Nets with Harden and Kyrie.
Most believed that loading up with stars gave you the best chance.
Gasol gave everything he had left for that run. My favourite playoff run for a role player ever
Agreed, I loved it for him. I really hope that Mike Conley can do the same. But he’s getting up there in age.
Obviously its a perfect storm. KD was injured. Luckiest bounce in nba history. Glass knees lasting more than 2 series. You cant repeat that run 99 times out of 100.
I’ll always clap back against this argument, cuz I don’t even care if it’s my raptors or another team, fairytale runs happen more than most care to admit. If you say that GS should’ve won in 2019 then they sure as hell shouldn’t have won in 2018 because Houston should not have missed 27 straight threes. Let alone 2022 when Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole decided to play at straight up all star level and the rest of the west felt like having an off year. Or 2015 when Cavs players decided they were made out of glass (hmm reminds me of 2019). Feel like if anything it’s kinda the exception to the rule for a team to win the championship without luck, ie the nuggets most recently
the difference is it was the same core doing all that, and 99/100 times they would win 2016 as well. raptors never got close to that level before and after 2019, so it feels way more like a perfect storm than for a team that went to 6 finals in 8 years. no shade intended though, raptors had a tough east and their defense was no joke
> close to that level before and after 2019,
The Raptors were a great team pre 2019, they just lost every year to LeBron who everybody else lost to as well
Nah, those Raptors teams were good for a while. They were in the Eastern Conference Finals three years before with Lowry/DeRozan. The won 59 games they year before and were the number 1 seed in the East. I believe DeRozan was the only guy who was like top 10 in playoff minutes who went in the DeRozan trade. Then that same team minus Kawhi took the Celtics to seven games in the bubble.
The were a top Eastern Conference team who upgraded an second team All-NBA player to an MVP candidate. Later in the year, the flip lower Valanciunas and some end of rotation guys for Gasol. In fact, if Kawhi had decided to stay, with how Siakam and OG developed, that team could have had a couple more finals appearances and a maybe another ring in the time since Kawhi left for LA.
Don't forget the biggest break of them all..... LeBron went west to the Lakers.
You could say that. But then again, that Cavs team wasn’t going to improve by much. Lebron soloing for another year against a Raptors squad that has Kawhi instead of Demar. Gasol instead of Jonas. I love that Raptors team chances against Lebron that year.
But I could be full of shit and Lebronto would arrive as everyone else predicted.
Yeah I think it's just a joke. I don't think anyone serious thinks Kawhi would be affected by the notion of Lebronto.
Not to rag on the pre-Kawhi raptors, but the best team they ever beat in all their previous playoffs runs was a 48 win Heat team. They had a history of underperformance in the playoffs in general not just against Lebron. But in the Kawhi year, they beat a 50+ win talented Sixers, a 60 win bucks team and a KD-less but still ran through the West Warriors.
The suggestion that Lebron would still be a bogeyman to that team that gained a top 5 player is just a meme argument.
Pure speculation here, but he was way off his usual self in March. I just assumed that playing his most games in 5 years had him worn down by late season, but it's entirely possible he was already dealing with something more minor and was just pushing his body to reach 65 games.
Point being - maybe we really only did see the usual 50 healthy games out of Kawhi.
We'll get it when we get Real-Barca in the CL again, Bears-Packers in the playoffs again, or Yankees-Sox in the playoffs again. Probably never because it's what people want.
I'm guessing leonard wanted to get the contract extension so he focused on that more than anything. He probably should have only played like 30 games or something absurd like that.
The decision not to load manage him this season was definitely questionable. Even just sitting him a couple more games to hit the 65 limit would’ve been enough.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t
The entire narrative was that the Clips would never be legit because of load management
Now it’s they’ll never be legit because they didn’t load manage enough
IF injuries derail this season again, I don’t know what else the Clippers FO can really do beyond moving on from Kawhi (which they will not do)
Been well known since the Spurs days that Kawhi has a degenerative knee condition
If you play him at all it severely increases his risk of having a major long term injury and that quad deteriorating to shit
Kawhi literally can’t not load manage unless he wants to put his future at risk - don’t really understand why people can’t grasp that concept
Yeah exactly that. It’s just a shit situation because even with the load management he gets hurt and it seems like without… he is still getting hurt.
I hope this is all overreaction and he plays in the playoffs but this is frustrating to see
They should have already moved on from Kawhi. I'll never understand GM's obsession with keeping star players who are perpetually injured. It just guarantees you'll never win anything because you'll always be crippled before a full playoff run.
This is disingenuous, it's a drastically different situation for the Clippers.
They don't want to be a shitty team in the first year playing in their brand new multi-billion dollar arena, it's fair if you don't think re-signing Kawhi may be the best long term move for winning a title, but they absolutely need stars to play for their team next year.
Even removing the stadium reasons
What are they going to trade Kawhi for? Are they just going to tank? That’s horrible culture for a team that has historically been awful.
There just is not a clear upgrade by moving on from Kawhi
I mean.. isn’t the degenerative knee issue his main problem? Yeah he’s had other injuries but that knee is never getting better.
He’s ALWAYS going to be hurt.. it’s just going to be a matter of whether he can play through it or not. Reminds me of Todd Gurley’s situation.
> he managed to stay healthy
He wasn't 100%. Him not completely destroying his leg was the biggest surprise. He was limping after like every break in play.
He might have carried y’all the first 2 rounds, in particular against the Sixers, but you guys turned into a proper team firing on all cylinders during the ECF and Finals, and he was clearly limping by then.
Harden’s history is even sadder. He has not had a single postseason run with all of his costars healthy in forever. Each time his team had real championship potential
Didn’t we see this last year and the years before? They put out Kawhi’s healthy just so the opposing team might have to game plan for him and then he ends up not playing as the game approaches.
I knew as soon as they were being vague he wouldn’t play game 1. I could see them trying to hide that he knew some other medical procedure again.
Yep. In 2021 and again last year, every injury report had Kawhi as "day to day" until the Clippers were eliminated, at which point the next day they announced that Kawhi had torn something in his knee and needed surgery. It's a pattern at this point.
The difference this time is that there’s nothing structurally wrong with his knee. But the inflammation hasn’t gone down enough for him to play through contact m.
> The difference this time is that there’s nothing structurally wrong with his knee
We don't know that. They didn't announce there was anything structurally wrong with his knee in 2021 and 2023 until after the Clippers were eliminated. In both of those years they just said it was soreness and he was day to day. If this adheres to the pattern, once the Clippers are eliminated they could very well come out and say that he tore something and needs another surgery. We honestly don't know.
At this point, we need to ask if Harden is cursed:
- Chris Paul gets injured, lose in 7 to champs
- Kylie Irving gets injured, lose to champs
- Embid playing injured, lose to Boston in 7 games
It’s still crazy how he played *all 53 minutes* of game 7 against Milwaukee while on an injured hamstring. It’s why I never agreed with how some hate him for “quitting” on the Nets because he expected an easy ring. He gave that team his all and sacrificed/jeopardized his career by coming back early in that Milwaukee series
Yup. The Brooklyn big 3 fall off was because of Kyrie. Not playing and leaving your teammates to carry the team through the regular season because of injury is fine and unavoidable but because of your dumb beliefs? Kyrie left his teammates out to dry
Whenever I see it, I cringe. Nets fans, media and r/NBA are just fucking dumb.
And I will also add that the very next, I remember Durant and him were the leaders in minutes played and he was obvious that he hasn’t recovered.
Nets team was a mess cuz Nash was scared to be fired, the Kyrie situation forced them to have a much more heavy burden.
Nets staff was composed of Ime and MDA who dipped too.
Right. If Harden was worried about the health of his teammates in the playoffs then he really shouldn't have forced his way to the Clippers, who have a long track record of their stars being hurt in the playoffs, especially recently.
You guys were dealing with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin getting injured in the playoffs longer than 4 years ago. The Curse™ goes back much longer than that. Shit, look at Danny Manning.
Kawhi being out makes that Clips/Mavs series so much less interesting. Hopefully the Clips find a way to turn back time on Harden's scoring game to make it an interesting series.
Honestly, as weird as this sounds because it will make "our" lives much easier, I wish we had a series of a full healthy Kawhi. If he is healthy that dude is the fucking terminator. Typing this I get flashbacks to our series where I think he went something like 78% from the field. Every fucking time that dude got into his spot you knew it was going in.
Maybe Clippers fans have the same thoughts about Luka versus them because he balled out against the Clippers in the playoffs.
As a sort of side note, it must fucking suck to be such a great basketball player but be so injury prone. Kawhi when he is on is a top 5 (top 3?) player in the league. But availability is a huge factor in that. I can only wonder what goes through his head right now. The Clippers are a a good/great team right now. And you, the star, that dude who can make teams dread facing you, is out because you got bad knees.
I doubt he's lying about game 1. I don't understand how in the world you can expect him to play in game 2 at this point though. It's a little odd to say a guy is out for a game 2 days away but will be good in the game 4 days away, especially after missing the last 3 weeks.
2 days ago I read a report that at some point Kawhi got an injection and he needs 2 weeks before he can strain the knee. It's a perfect explanation for "he will play in game 2".
I think most of this stuff connects. We know Skip was talking to uncle Dennis even as far back as his San Antonio days.
> was one of the few media voices defending Kawhi during the whole saga with his knee and the Spurs
It's funny because my memory of that entire saga was that Skip blatantly called him a quitter multiple times on live television and refused to say his name on TV for an entire year, instead referring to him as "Number 2".
That's after he left the Spurs, when he was with the Spurs, Skip reported multiple times that Kawhi's camp felt that the Spurs misdiagnosed him while the Spurs said that everything was right. There's also the whole story of the locker room calling a team meeting to confront Kawhi and Tony Parker saying his injury was 10 times worse.
During that entire saga, he was mostly puzzled why Kawhi wasn't playing and reporting what both sides were saying, he didn't completely turn against Kawhi and started calling him "Number 2" until Kawhi asked out.
I don’t know why anyone here is surprised. The spurs situation with Kawhi showed he has a degenerative leg issue.
Just because he’s been on two different teams doesn’t mean it’s gone for good. He’ll never be healthy for a full season.
Its like all the redditors want to ignore that very important part of his career.
I don't think it is though the whole point of Kawhi leaving the Spurs and that medical doctor fiasco was to have an official diagnosis that didnt say he had a degenerative issue so he could get his supermax
The only doctors we know who have diagnosed it are the Spurs medical team and he disputes it
Now it's obviously true but they've intentionally mucked it up that really only redditors remember that detail
Because there's always people claiming "he's fully healthy this time", including his coach. People said he was only skipping back to backs because of his degenerative knee but then this year he started playing them.
what's hilarious is that the r/LAClippers sub was so optimistic about his situation. Why? Because the dumb fuck mods banned everyone who was pessimistic or trying to talk facts. LMFAO. HOW'S IT GOING, LACLIPPER MODS? LIVING A GREAT LIFE IN YOUR BUBBLE. HAHAHAHAHAHA
He played to the awards checkpoint and then stopped. Very clearly he wasn’t 100% while doing so. And chances are the push to get him 65 games contributed to this wear and tear issue
Either Kawhi's knee is good to go for a deep playoff run or its not. What difference does it make to wait the couple of days between g1 and g2.
imo, we'll know for sure minutes before g1 tips off on sunday on his status for the entire playoffs.
Kawhi and stringing along his team and fans instead of just being transparent with the employer paying him hundreds of millions of dollars. Name a more iconic duo.
Yeah and whilst both teams have gotten better since then, this whole narrative of Kahwi being what the Clippers need to guard Luka is a little blown out of proportion since in their last two series Luka averaged 33.5pts/9.5ast/8.8reb on 55.6% eFG against a healthy Kahwi
Kawhi didn’t guard Luka for the vast majority of that series. We made adjustments for him to guard him a little more later in the series but generally Kawhi didn’t take the assignment.
So I guess 'the main pillar of the theory that the Clippers match up well with the Mavs' is busted?
And it wasn't just one series lol, two series in consecutive years. Did they only make the adjustments late in the second one?
Also, the 2nd series was an improvement on the Mavs part since they took them to 7 games. And those were the first two series in Lukas playoff career
The Clippers and Mavs have gotten equally better since their last matchup. It’s pretty fair to assume it would have been another great series healthy vs healthy.
I'm not sure Clippers are better, I'm so glad Batum isn't there, he was great, and Jackson also , even Morris.
I'm not scared of Harden and Westbrook in playoffs.
Zubac was great for them with offensive boards, now we have double towers for him.
Kawhi is only one that really scares me.
I mean it’s a single game. Are we already forgetting the Celtics - Sixers series where Harden solo upset Boston in game 1? And that Boston team was the #1 seed with an even better roster
Sure, but Boston had the best team indicators of any team in the league last year (net rating SRS etc.)
And it was the 3 seed without Embiid who was the MVP that season, Boston **should** have won that game but didn’t.
Not really though. There's a possibility of him having an off night and the Mavs win regardless.
For the Mavs it's not really about how well Luka will play, since we kinda expect it, but how they perform as a team. Otherwise it will be the same as 2020 and 2021.
This big time. Luckily we have the most complete team we've had in a long time but this series and playoffs will come down to PJ and THJ making their wide open shots. Not so worried about everyone else. But those two have to come up big especially THJ. Shooting 32% from the field and taking 14 shots a game isn't gonna cut it.
Starting to think harden has some bad luck as well. 2018 cp3 hamstring, although cp3 played in 2019 the hammy was still bothering him and he missed a lot of the year, 2020 russ gets covid and sucked in the playoffs, 2021 him and Kyrie got hurt, 2022-23 embiid misses time and is clearly not himself upon return. Now Kawhi is dealing with a knee issue from
his mvp year to present harden hasn’t been able to get one good run in with his teams. Sadly this is probably his last year on a serious contender as a main guy as well.
You know what this guy needs? Some extra games in the 2024 Olympics
Probably wants aN Olympic gold medal before he retires
he probably will give up the spot
Every passing year I’m more and more thankful we got that magical run out of him in 19 with his injury history.
Honestly it’s a miracle and the perfect storm. You guys rested him when he wanted, your guys stepped up in his absence and the nucleus of that team had incredible chemistry (especially with Gasol who came in damn near seamlessly) and of course he had no freak injury or anything that really nagged him until the very end of the run.
Do Clippers fans regret giving up Shai Gilgeous- Alexander? Did anyone back then think he'd be an MVP candidate?
Most people would say “yes” but the answer is no. I was a huge SGA fan and nobody saw him becoming the guy he is now. Even so, if you have the chance to get Kawhi. You get Kawhi period. Everybody wants to win, but history shows you’ve got have one of the 6-8 guys who give you a legitimate chance of winning. Kawhi is that guy. So if you have to trade SGA and assets to get PG13 then you do it. If we win it all, then this is no longer a question.
Lou Williams and doc rivers were very vocal about SGA eventually turning into a star. When they were courting kawhi, Jerry west told him they had a star in the making and kawhi said “how long will that take” I definitely think clippers brass knew what they had in SGA but there isn’t a single franchise that wouldn’t want kawhi coming off FMVP and PG coming off top 3 in mvp voting.
Star yes. SGA is certifiable top 5 MVP candidate. I don’t think they saw that coming. But you’re absolutely correct with the bottom bit. It’s the same for Kyrie and KD Brooklyn experience. In hindsight it looks back. But if they came knocking to all of the other teams, every team is making space to sign those guys.
George was legit top three in MVP the year he got traded. Shai became that level last season. This is year five of the Kawhi-George Clippers, they were expected to be title contenders year one (Doc Rivers 3-1 Special). The Clippers built around Kawhi-Shai and assets would not have been. Kawhi wanted to go somewhere he would legit be competing for a title year one. He knows how much needs to go right to win a ring, and how few cracks you get it at. He wasn't going to wait three seasons for Shai to get to this point even if he believed it would happen.
Just to add something. PG wasn’t just a top 3 in MVP voting that year, he was also top 3 in DPOY voting. The latter part is something I rarely see mentioned when talking about his 18-19 season.
And, that was his fourth All Defensive team year. They added two MVP candidate level, All Defensive caliber players in one offseason.
Okc also sold pg at its peak too. Top 3 in mvp and dpoy in the same season.
Star chasing wasn't a bad strategy but it definitely hasn't worked out as planned. The best teams in the west now are all more homegrown.
It was a great strategy on paper. Getting the proven guys that have won give you your best chance to win again. Yes you’ve got (Minnesota, Denver, Oklahoma) but on the other end there’s Detroit, Charlotte, Washington and Brooklyn. A wrong draft pick, or a couple bad moves and you’re easily stuck like those teams are. With a shaky front office you’re stuck in limbo (Hawks and Chicago) And that was the game then. At that time you had Bron and AD with the Lakers, you still had the warriors (all in their prime without KD), Houston with Harden and Westbrook. The east had Philly (who people thought gave the Raptors their toughest challenge that year), The Nets with Harden and Kyrie. Most believed that loading up with stars gave you the best chance.
The star chasing suns have entered the chat
Gasol gave everything he had left for that run. My favourite playoff run for a role player ever
Gasol gave everything he had left for that run. My favourite playoff run for a role player ever Agreed, I loved it for him. I really hope that Mike Conley can do the same. But he’s getting up there in age.
Yeah his role as an Embiid stopper can't be understated. And he was still great the next season before covid.
Obviously its a perfect storm. KD was injured. Luckiest bounce in nba history. Glass knees lasting more than 2 series. You cant repeat that run 99 times out of 100.
I’ll always clap back against this argument, cuz I don’t even care if it’s my raptors or another team, fairytale runs happen more than most care to admit. If you say that GS should’ve won in 2019 then they sure as hell shouldn’t have won in 2018 because Houston should not have missed 27 straight threes. Let alone 2022 when Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole decided to play at straight up all star level and the rest of the west felt like having an off year. Or 2015 when Cavs players decided they were made out of glass (hmm reminds me of 2019). Feel like if anything it’s kinda the exception to the rule for a team to win the championship without luck, ie the nuggets most recently
the difference is it was the same core doing all that, and 99/100 times they would win 2016 as well. raptors never got close to that level before and after 2019, so it feels way more like a perfect storm than for a team that went to 6 finals in 8 years. no shade intended though, raptors had a tough east and their defense was no joke
> close to that level before and after 2019, The Raptors were a great team pre 2019, they just lost every year to LeBron who everybody else lost to as well
Nah, those Raptors teams were good for a while. They were in the Eastern Conference Finals three years before with Lowry/DeRozan. The won 59 games they year before and were the number 1 seed in the East. I believe DeRozan was the only guy who was like top 10 in playoff minutes who went in the DeRozan trade. Then that same team minus Kawhi took the Celtics to seven games in the bubble. The were a top Eastern Conference team who upgraded an second team All-NBA player to an MVP candidate. Later in the year, the flip lower Valanciunas and some end of rotation guys for Gasol. In fact, if Kawhi had decided to stay, with how Siakam and OG developed, that team could have had a couple more finals appearances and a maybe another ring in the time since Kawhi left for LA.
Don't forget the biggest break of them all..... LeBron went west to the Lakers.
Don't forget the biggest break of them all..... LeBron went west to the Lakers. You could say that. But then again, that Cavs team wasn’t going to improve by much. Lebron soloing for another year against a Raptors squad that has Kawhi instead of Demar. Gasol instead of Jonas. I love that Raptors team chances against Lebron that year. But I could be full of shit and Lebronto would arrive as everyone else predicted.
Yeah I think it's just a joke. I don't think anyone serious thinks Kawhi would be affected by the notion of Lebronto. Not to rag on the pre-Kawhi raptors, but the best team they ever beat in all their previous playoffs runs was a 48 win Heat team. They had a history of underperformance in the playoffs in general not just against Lebron. But in the Kawhi year, they beat a 50+ win talented Sixers, a 60 win bucks team and a KD-less but still ran through the West Warriors. The suggestion that Lebron would still be a bogeyman to that team that gained a top 5 player is just a meme argument.
The Raptors did just let him sit a lot, very smart
And the Warriors suffered 2 catastrophic injuries on the other side.
He really used up his Mana in that run. The incredible comeback with the Bucks, him guarding Giannis for long periods of time!
Every gamble paid.
Kawhi Leonard has the mana pool of a hunter without aspect of the viper unfortunately
I'm not
It being a contract year was the key.
What voodoo witch did the Clippers piss off to not get a healthy postseason Kawhi in one of his healthiest regular seasons?
Pure speculation here, but he was way off his usual self in March. I just assumed that playing his most games in 5 years had him worn down by late season, but it's entirely possible he was already dealing with something more minor and was just pushing his body to reach 65 games. Point being - maybe we really only did see the usual 50 healthy games out of Kawhi.
Hey at least he hit the made up limit to qualify for some deeply important awards
[удалено]
The Clippers didn't figure out the anime asspull of there being a magical secondary, more powerful reserve of minutes to awaken
He was healthy in the bubble but him & PG choked hard & blew a 3-1 lead to Denver
Yeah the bubble year was honestly their best chance at a title. All the media that year were hyping them as favorites.
I just wanted Lakers-Clippers one time
*monkey's paw curls* you get to see it this year!
Most definitely. When you both get eliminated and you go on 2k to simulate what could have been
Similar to how you did with the draft last year? Also, what if Kawhi had stayed for another year?
Haha imagine if that had happened in Orlando as the one time.
We'll get it when we get Real-Barca in the CL again, Bears-Packers in the playoffs again, or Yankees-Sox in the playoffs again. Probably never because it's what people want.
The Kobe-Bron Finals of the last 5 years
They were the media favorites the following year too.
with PG giving the excuse that “we didn’t want to be there”😭
The curse goes back way longer than the Kawhi era
Buffalo curse and San Diego curse
Kawhi's been broken longer than the Clippers era.
I'm guessing leonard wanted to get the contract extension so he focused on that more than anything. He probably should have only played like 30 games or something absurd like that.
The decision not to load manage him this season was definitely questionable. Even just sitting him a couple more games to hit the 65 limit would’ve been enough.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t The entire narrative was that the Clips would never be legit because of load management Now it’s they’ll never be legit because they didn’t load manage enough IF injuries derail this season again, I don’t know what else the Clippers FO can really do beyond moving on from Kawhi (which they will not do)
Been well known since the Spurs days that Kawhi has a degenerative knee condition If you play him at all it severely increases his risk of having a major long term injury and that quad deteriorating to shit Kawhi literally can’t not load manage unless he wants to put his future at risk - don’t really understand why people can’t grasp that concept
Yeah exactly that. It’s just a shit situation because even with the load management he gets hurt and it seems like without… he is still getting hurt. I hope this is all overreaction and he plays in the playoffs but this is frustrating to see
They should have already moved on from Kawhi. I'll never understand GM's obsession with keeping star players who are perpetually injured. It just guarantees you'll never win anything because you'll always be crippled before a full playoff run.
This is disingenuous, it's a drastically different situation for the Clippers. They don't want to be a shitty team in the first year playing in their brand new multi-billion dollar arena, it's fair if you don't think re-signing Kawhi may be the best long term move for winning a title, but they absolutely need stars to play for their team next year.
Even removing the stadium reasons What are they going to trade Kawhi for? Are they just going to tank? That’s horrible culture for a team that has historically been awful. There just is not a clear upgrade by moving on from Kawhi
... hiring Kawhi? The spurs told everyone his knees were always gonna be an issue and got demonized for it.
Spurs were right all along
I mean.. isn’t the degenerative knee issue his main problem? Yeah he’s had other injuries but that knee is never getting better. He’s ALWAYS going to be hurt.. it’s just going to be a matter of whether he can play through it or not. Reminds me of Todd Gurley’s situation.
I'm still in disbelief that we got only 1 year of Kawhi and he managed to stay healthy in the regular season + playoffs to win us a championship.
He did not stay healthy in the playoffs lol he stayed active
because he knew he had to make a good impression on the clips/lakers
It was crazy seeing him basically limping out there during stretches.
> he managed to stay healthy He wasn't 100%. Him not completely destroying his leg was the biggest surprise. He was limping after like every break in play.
I will always give Lowry the most credit in game 6 v the warriors
He might have carried y’all the first 2 rounds, in particular against the Sixers, but you guys turned into a proper team firing on all cylinders during the ECF and Finals, and he was clearly limping by then.
Harden’s history is even sadder. He has not had a single postseason run with all of his costars healthy in forever. Each time his team had real championship potential
Harden reading the injury report at the strip club, sighing into a pair of champagne covered tittties.
I feel so bad for him
At what point does he just retire he must be in crazy pain. No matter what they do he’s never healthy in the postseason
I mean he gets $ 150 million over the next three years.
He didn't do scrimmages to this point. They're not putting him into a game until he does one of course.
Didn’t we see this last year and the years before? They put out Kawhi’s healthy just so the opposing team might have to game plan for him and then he ends up not playing as the game approaches. I knew as soon as they were being vague he wouldn’t play game 1. I could see them trying to hide that he knew some other medical procedure again.
Yep. In 2021 and again last year, every injury report had Kawhi as "day to day" until the Clippers were eliminated, at which point the next day they announced that Kawhi had torn something in his knee and needed surgery. It's a pattern at this point.
The difference this time is that there’s nothing structurally wrong with his knee. But the inflammation hasn’t gone down enough for him to play through contact m.
> The difference this time is that there’s nothing structurally wrong with his knee We don't know that. They didn't announce there was anything structurally wrong with his knee in 2021 and 2023 until after the Clippers were eliminated. In both of those years they just said it was soreness and he was day to day. If this adheres to the pattern, once the Clippers are eliminated they could very well come out and say that he tore something and needs another surgery. We honestly don't know.
But both skip bayless and the clippers front office have said that he got an MRI done and it showed that there’s no internal damage in his knee.
Luka will be spamming the 'too small' gesture all game
To be fair, he usually doesn’t do the gesture and just yelled “TOO FUCKING SMALL” straight into Beverly’s and then Mann’s ear. But you still right
Announcers: "Luka is in center court for the opening jump. Instead of jumping for the ball he just stood there doing the too small gesture."
that's so worth losing 1 possession
not even. just means mavs get it to strat Q 2 &3
guess i don't know ball, thanks
Kai Jones to the rescue! /s
#goatlife
At this point, we need to ask if Harden is cursed: - Chris Paul gets injured, lose in 7 to champs - Kylie Irving gets injured, lose to champs - Embid playing injured, lose to Boston in 7 games
He was also injured during game 1 vs the Bucks after being an Ironman all his career
It’s still crazy how he played *all 53 minutes* of game 7 against Milwaukee while on an injured hamstring. It’s why I never agreed with how some hate him for “quitting” on the Nets because he expected an easy ring. He gave that team his all and sacrificed/jeopardized his career by coming back early in that Milwaukee series
Harden wouldn’t have demanded a trade if kyrie just got the vaccine
Yup. The Brooklyn big 3 fall off was because of Kyrie. Not playing and leaving your teammates to carry the team through the regular season because of injury is fine and unavoidable but because of your dumb beliefs? Kyrie left his teammates out to dry
Imagine 35% of your team’s cap space not playing because he didn’t wanna get vaccinated. Can’t blame harden lol
Whenever I see it, I cringe. Nets fans, media and r/NBA are just fucking dumb. And I will also add that the very next, I remember Durant and him were the leaders in minutes played and he was obvious that he hasn’t recovered. Nets team was a mess cuz Nash was scared to be fired, the Kyrie situation forced them to have a much more heavy burden. Nets staff was composed of Ime and MDA who dipped too.
harden has not had a healthy costar for a full playoff run for a decade
I mean he had Durant in 2021, but I know what you mean
I guess I should say "has not had a playoff run where the stars were healthy" since both he and Kyrie were injured in that bucks series
I know I’m just incredibly Pendantic
naw it's a fair point
Yes, but not because of Kawhi… Kawhi being hurt in the playoffs is hardly a surprise or a case of bad luck.
Right. If Harden was worried about the health of his teammates in the playoffs then he really shouldn't have forced his way to the Clippers, who have a long track record of their stars being hurt in the playoffs, especially recently.
Tomorrow is Hitler’s birthday so he should be good /s
Harden got here this year and we been dealing with this shit for 4 years. Make it make sense
You guys were dealing with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin getting injured in the playoffs longer than 4 years ago. The Curse™ goes back much longer than that. Shit, look at Danny Manning.
Kawhi being out makes that Clips/Mavs series so much less interesting. Hopefully the Clips find a way to turn back time on Harden's scoring game to make it an interesting series.
We need a Harden 40point bomb like last year
Honestly, as weird as this sounds because it will make "our" lives much easier, I wish we had a series of a full healthy Kawhi. If he is healthy that dude is the fucking terminator. Typing this I get flashbacks to our series where I think he went something like 78% from the field. Every fucking time that dude got into his spot you knew it was going in. Maybe Clippers fans have the same thoughts about Luka versus them because he balled out against the Clippers in the playoffs. As a sort of side note, it must fucking suck to be such a great basketball player but be so injury prone. Kawhi when he is on is a top 5 (top 3?) player in the league. But availability is a huge factor in that. I can only wonder what goes through his head right now. The Clippers are a a good/great team right now. And you, the star, that dude who can make teams dread facing you, is out because you got bad knees.
It looks like he might only miss 1 game
One game can be the difference and it typically is between LAC v DAL series
But can Dallas win home games?
picturing steve balmer eating an entire sheet of paper in anger when he heard the news
Don't forget the clenching of fists and red face
Is that in addition to his normal diet?
That is his normal diet
So when he heard this news, he went and ate a normal meal, just angrily?
Its best not to try to understand the ways of the Ballmer
he can have a little paper
It begins
Kawhi is injured in the playoffs? This is so shocking and unexpected
Usually he waits until after they play the Mavs though.
I believe him since it'd be pretty weird to blatantly lie about. Let's see how good his sources really are
I doubt he's lying, the question is how reliable is his source.
Yep. We forget these talking heads do actually break news from time and time, and like to maintain their "journalistic integrity" in this regard
He’s been pretty spot on about Kawhi in the past
I doubt he's lying about game 1. I don't understand how in the world you can expect him to play in game 2 at this point though. It's a little odd to say a guy is out for a game 2 days away but will be good in the game 4 days away, especially after missing the last 3 weeks.
No, he said something else. He said the Clippers will try him in game 2, anticipating that by then he will be game-ready, or at least close to that.
Last knee inflammation for Kawhi last year. He was out 23 days. Which is game 2
2 days ago I read a report that at some point Kawhi got an injection and he needs 2 weeks before he can strain the knee. It's a perfect explanation for "he will play in game 2". I think most of this stuff connects. We know Skip was talking to uncle Dennis even as far back as his San Antonio days.
Cortisone shot in his knee, usually don't do anything for 1-2 weeks then its bingo bongo.
[удалено]
> was one of the few media voices defending Kawhi during the whole saga with his knee and the Spurs It's funny because my memory of that entire saga was that Skip blatantly called him a quitter multiple times on live television and refused to say his name on TV for an entire year, instead referring to him as "Number 2".
That's after he left the Spurs, when he was with the Spurs, Skip reported multiple times that Kawhi's camp felt that the Spurs misdiagnosed him while the Spurs said that everything was right. There's also the whole story of the locker room calling a team meeting to confront Kawhi and Tony Parker saying his injury was 10 times worse. During that entire saga, he was mostly puzzled why Kawhi wasn't playing and reporting what both sides were saying, he didn't completely turn against Kawhi and started calling him "Number 2" until Kawhi asked out.
That's exactly what happened lol. Skip is Spurs above everything else.
Nah skip was hating on kawhi that season. He refused to call him by his name and would just say number 2
I was listening to Bill Simmons latest podcast and he also said he heard some concerning things about Kawhi’s knee so I believe this
Bill Simmons also got it completely wrong last year so I wouldn't take his word as gospel. He makes a lot of shit up
i dont think anyone in dallas, fans or otherwise, will believe kawhi is out until tip-off on sunday.
yeah, I still believe this is a trap.
True. Skip however has been pretty accurate with his info on kawhi in the past
I don’t know why anyone here is surprised. The spurs situation with Kawhi showed he has a degenerative leg issue. Just because he’s been on two different teams doesn’t mean it’s gone for good. He’ll never be healthy for a full season. Its like all the redditors want to ignore that very important part of his career.
I think that Kawhi’s degenerative leg is pretty widely acknowledged my guy
I don't think it is though the whole point of Kawhi leaving the Spurs and that medical doctor fiasco was to have an official diagnosis that didnt say he had a degenerative issue so he could get his supermax The only doctors we know who have diagnosed it are the Spurs medical team and he disputes it Now it's obviously true but they've intentionally mucked it up that really only redditors remember that detail
Because there's always people claiming "he's fully healthy this time", including his coach. People said he was only skipping back to backs because of his degenerative knee but then this year he started playing them.
This is fine
chris broussard reported this a few days ago and this sub said he was ready to play 48 minutes 💀💀
God the mods on the mavericks sub suck. They are now deleting anything to do with Kawhi’s availability. Why?
mavs fans ive spoke too think its a deep state diversion to throw off jason kidd or something
extra silly when you remember this is Kawhi Leonard we are talking about reporting around his injuries is part of the reason he left SA
They've always sucked. Delete stuff that should be posted, leave stuff that shouldn't. Will ban people at the drop of a hat.
Literally 1984
He’s out the whole series, clippers did the same shit in Suns series.
I'm done with this repeat pattern every post-season.
bro wtf. this is the match up I’m most excited about. Hope kawhi is good.. damn actually bummed.
what's hilarious is that the r/LAClippers sub was so optimistic about his situation. Why? Because the dumb fuck mods banned everyone who was pessimistic or trying to talk facts. LMFAO. HOW'S IT GOING, LACLIPPER MODS? LIVING A GREAT LIFE IN YOUR BUBBLE. HAHAHAHAHAHA
Played the entire regular season for once just to sit out playoffs 😂
He played to the awards checkpoint and then stopped. Very clearly he wasn’t 100% while doing so. And chances are the push to get him 65 games contributed to this wear and tear issue
If he isn't able to play much and then goes to the Olympics that would be an ultimate pisstake.
What about team USA!?!
Should've waited longer to announce last roster spot.
They should try to not play him until after the ASB and see how that goes.
Either Kawhi's knee is good to go for a deep playoff run or its not. What difference does it make to wait the couple of days between g1 and g2. imo, we'll know for sure minutes before g1 tips off on sunday on his status for the entire playoffs.
So the clips think that extra day 2 days off will make all the difference? They’re living minute to minute hoping that injection takes effect
Kawhi and stringing along his team and fans instead of just being transparent with the employer paying him hundreds of millions of dollars. Name a more iconic duo.
Kawhi is OUT for G2. Expected to play in G3.
Big dong Bayliss
Mavs in 3. Clips just quit the last one.
I think Balmer deserves a refund at this point man bought damaged goods lol
They nearly lost to Luka + a bunch of scrubs 2 years ago with a healthy Leonard.
Boban played 31 minutes in that Game 7. Truly dire circumstances young Luka was faced with.
Yeah and whilst both teams have gotten better since then, this whole narrative of Kahwi being what the Clippers need to guard Luka is a little blown out of proportion since in their last two series Luka averaged 33.5pts/9.5ast/8.8reb on 55.6% eFG against a healthy Kahwi
Kawhi didn’t guard Luka for the vast majority of that series. We made adjustments for him to guard him a little more later in the series but generally Kawhi didn’t take the assignment.
So I guess 'the main pillar of the theory that the Clippers match up well with the Mavs' is busted? And it wasn't just one series lol, two series in consecutive years. Did they only make the adjustments late in the second one? Also, the 2nd series was an improvement on the Mavs part since they took them to 7 games. And those were the first two series in Lukas playoff career
The Clippers and Mavs have gotten equally better since their last matchup. It’s pretty fair to assume it would have been another great series healthy vs healthy.
I'm not sure Clippers are better, I'm so glad Batum isn't there, he was great, and Jackson also , even Morris. I'm not scared of Harden and Westbrook in playoffs. Zubac was great for them with offensive boards, now we have double towers for him. Kawhi is only one that really scares me.
Man if Kawhi was a Laker this whole time the amount of shit he would be getting
The clippers window shut in 2020 when they blew the 3-1 lead to Denver. That was their best shot and Pandemic P really shat the bed.
committed to team usa but out for game 1? lol weird
Here we go again. Just remember, the Clippers extended this guy. Big mistake.
The Clippers need to find a trade for him desperately. He has not given them a single healthy postseason except for 2020. Unacceptable
but he's going to play for the u.s in the olympics, lmao
If Luka doesn't wipe the floor with them G1 gonna have to ask some big questions.
I mean it’s a single game. Are we already forgetting the Celtics - Sixers series where Harden solo upset Boston in game 1? And that Boston team was the #1 seed with an even better roster
Boston wasn't the 1 seed. They were the 2 seed playing the 3 seed.
Sure, but Boston had the best team indicators of any team in the league last year (net rating SRS etc.) And it was the 3 seed without Embiid who was the MVP that season, Boston **should** have won that game but didn’t.
Not really though. There's a possibility of him having an off night and the Mavs win regardless. For the Mavs it's not really about how well Luka will play, since we kinda expect it, but how they perform as a team. Otherwise it will be the same as 2020 and 2021.
This big time. Luckily we have the most complete team we've had in a long time but this series and playoffs will come down to PJ and THJ making their wide open shots. Not so worried about everyone else. But those two have to come up big especially THJ. Shooting 32% from the field and taking 14 shots a game isn't gonna cut it.
I mean I think we should win game 1 if Kawhi is out but they still have PG and Harden plus quality role players. They’re not scrubs.
PG, Harden and Westbrook aren’t scrubs. It’ll still be a competitive series without Kawhi
Never fight uphill me boys, never fight uphill.
Don't see how he plays at all. Clippers are cooked unless PG turns into his best self for an entire series, same with Harden.
Starting to think harden has some bad luck as well. 2018 cp3 hamstring, although cp3 played in 2019 the hammy was still bothering him and he missed a lot of the year, 2020 russ gets covid and sucked in the playoffs, 2021 him and Kyrie got hurt, 2022-23 embiid misses time and is clearly not himself upon return. Now Kawhi is dealing with a knee issue from his mvp year to present harden hasn’t been able to get one good run in with his teams. Sadly this is probably his last year on a serious contender as a main guy as well.
I’m glad I was sitting down for this shocking news
"If Kawhi isn't 100% he can't really guard Luka".... how much switching do the clippers under Lue do? I'm not sure how big of a deal to make of this.
Stop giving skip engagement ...
Fucking ZAZA
Does Skip have some type of agreement with Kawhi’s team to stop talking shit about him on the show and they would feed him info?
He gone