Significantly few teams in the NBA have been hampered by injury as much as the Los Angeles Clippers have since they built their team around Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. They are one loss away from being eliminated from the playoffs, and likely won’t have either Kawhi or PG in the coming elimination game.
Kawhi Leonard‘s injury history makes for poor reading, he hasn’t played more than 60 games since the 2017-18 NBA season. Even Paul George has struggled with injuries throughout his career and has missed crucial games for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Discussing Lonzo Ball and LaMelo Ball on his podcast, Paul George replied to the idea that Lonzo can’t stay healthy by saying, “That has nothing to do with the game… Being healthy has nothing to do with talent… That’s a work ethic thing.”
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It’s a bit wild that George said this, considering that he and Kawhi Leonard are two of the most injury-prone stars in the league. In a way, the question would be what the Clippers can do better to stay healthy more often. Their lack of availability has often led to a lower seed for the Clippers or their getting knocked out of the playoffs.
But there is also truth to what Paul George is saying, as seen by things that NBA legends have said as well. The Clippers’ stars aren’t the only players that have been questioned for their lack of availability, Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis have also regularly been mentioned in these conversations. And Paul George himself explained why too much rest has been an issue for NBA stars too.
Paul George Claimed Load Management Is Hurting NBA Players
In the modern era, it’s all about managing players’ health to have them in peak condition for the playoffs. But as seen with the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, this strategy doesn’t pay off every time. And Paul George had spoken earlier in the season about how load management negatively affects players.
“Teams don’t really practice, you know we’re not getting up and down”, said George. “They think by giving us time off it’s helped managing our bodies but it’s making us weaker as players.”
This ties into his comments about work ethic and it makes sense, too, players need to train their bodies for a grueling schedule to succeed. Draymond Green explained recently how playing every other day in the playoffs has ‘screwed’ the Clippers, and the argument was along these same lines. One way or another, both George and Leonard have to find a way to stop getting injured constantly.
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