KAWHI, GEORGE STILL BIG PART OF CLIPS’ PLANS
Two days after the Clippers’ season ended in a first-round postseason loss with stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George injured yet again, their top basketball executive said the team’s future still revolves around the duo and also praised coach Tyronn Lue.
“Injuries suck,” Lawrence Frank said Thursday.
Yet the team’s president of basketball operations quickly added that he did not want the effect of the injuries “to mask a disappointing regular season,” voicing as much frustration with the season’s ultimate result as the team’s day-to-day process.
Noting the past 28 NBA championships have been won by a top-three seed, Frank said the regular season must matter more to the Clippers and that “all of us, starting with me, we can compete harder every day.”
The team entered the season talking openly of its championship expectations but not even a week into the regular season George was already criticizing the team’s lack of practice intensity. At season’s end the Clippers needed three consecutive wins to earn the Western Conference’s fifth seed and avoid the play-in tournament.
“We have to be honest with ourselves and we have to look in the mirror,” Frank said in his season-ending news conference. “It starts with me and we have to get back to honoring and respecting the regular season. We have to compete harder, more consistently and we have to earn it.”
Their stars’ lack of availability due to because of injuries or the team’s approach of managing their workloads complicated how much continuity the Clippers could build, with Leonard and George playing 38 games together, with a 24-14 record, and 142 total games in four seasons. They last played a playoff game on June 14, 2021.
George sprained a knee in March and wouldn’t have been cleared until early May, Frank said. Leonard missed the last three games of the first-round loss to Phoenix with a torn meniscus, a diagnosis the team learned of after Game 2. His latest injury occurred in the same knee in which he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in 2021, and Frank said that Leonard’s ACL is “intact.”
Whether Leonard will opt for surgery to repair the meniscus has yet to be decided, but “regardless of the treatment, Kawhi will be ready for next year,” Frank said.
George voiced frustration on Tuesday with the injuries while also expressing optimism that the team could still reach its title goals, and that he and Leonard have productive years still ahead of them.
With Leonard and George at the core of their plans, the Clippers will need to be creative in finding upgrades around them. The league’s new collective bargaining agreement levies penalties against top-spending teams that spend more than $17.5 million above the luxury tax line — a class that would include the Clippers under owner Steve Ballmer.
Frank said the team would like to re-sign point guard Russell Westbrook and center Mason Plumlee, who are both set to be free agents, and Eric Gordon, whose contract isn’t guaranteed until late June.
“We’re blessed to have a chairman who’s all in to try to capitalize on the window we’re in,” Frank said. “At the same time, it’s our job to be responsible and make responsible decisions.”