The LA Clippers’ injury bug continues to impact seasons at a time.
Entering the season, the LA Clippers will be without superstar Kawhi Leonard as he continues to deal with knee inflammation that he’s rehabilitating. This is nothing new, as knee injuries have consistently held Leonard out of games since his arrival to the Clippers in the offseason of 2019.
This year, LA doesn’t have Paul George anymore. The two star forwards arrived at the same time, though George didn’t receive an offer for his desired contract from the club, leading to his signing with the Philadelphia 76ers this past offseason.
The load will now fall on James Harden, who is another star who had an incredible prime. While he might be past that, he’s used to having to carry the load for his squad as they play through him.
For quite some time, it seemed as if Leonard was going to represent the nation by playing for Team USA in the Olympics, then he was held out for, at the time, precautionary reasons. What wasn’t clear was that Leonard wasn’t going to be ready to go for training camp or preseason play.
The Clippers don’t own their own first-round pick, so they’re expected to be competitive. With only one of their star players available, is that to be expected from the club?
James isn’t a young player himself, and, should he deal with any sort of injury, the squad could be in a scary place. They don’t have an elite roster with players that can step into a star role. The rest of the roster is built around stars, so their production drops when the star players can’t go.
Given the stage of his career James is in, the Clippers’ plan for his playing time won’t change with Leonard out.
With Leonard out, don’t expect Harden to assume more playing time. The 35-year-old guard is still a productive player but certainly isn’t the same player he was during his time with the Houston Rockets.
Clippers head coach Ty Lue explained that the team is going to be cautious with Harden, as they can’t afford an injury to him.
“We got to be smart about it. We’ve been talking about it, meeting about it, just making sure we don’t run him into the ground,” Lue explained. “He thinks he can play 48, but we’re not gonna do that.”
Lue understands why some coaches are people in the basketball world might resort to playing Harden more, but he also knows they can’t afford to further risk an injury to the guard.
“When you lose a power player like Kawhi to start, you can see yourself playing James way more minutes than you need to. So, we just got to make sure we keep him healthy and do the smart thing, and we’re still working on that right now as far as minutes and what we try to have to start the season,” Lue stated.
If not playing James too much leads to the Clippers starting the season slow, they will take that risk in favor of getting Leonard healthy with Harden to turn things around.
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