Are the LA Clippers bracing for a lost season without Kawhi Leonard?
Are the LA Clippers bracing for a lost season in 2021-22?
The LA Clippers are coming off a season where they have to feel like they let a championship get away. If it hadn’t been for the injury to Kawhi Leonard, there’s a very good chance that the Clippers would’ve made the NBA Finals. Whether they would’ve beat the Milwaukee Bucks is a question on its own, but you can’t act as if the injury to Kawhi didn’t entirely nuke their chances.
The worst part of it all is that it just wasn’t a simple injury either. It was an injury that could see the Clippers have to, at the very least, start the 2021-22 NBA season with Kawhi sidelined.
Kawhi was officially diagnosed with a particaly torn ACL and there’s currently no timeline for a return. However, considering that the injury happened in June, there’s a good chance that he won’t be back with the team until at least the middle of the season.
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If so, that could throw a huge wrench into what the Clippers can be next season in the Western Conference. If Kawhi is not healthy and there’s no guarantee that he’s going to be back at 100 percent next season, it would dramatically knock the Clippers down a notch or two on the West’s heiarchy.
Add in a strange trade that the Clippers made over the weekend and an argument could be made that perhaps the Clippers are preparing for somewhat of a lost season.
Sunday night, the Clippers traded Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo, and Daniel Oturu to the Memphis Grizzles for Eric Bledsoe. A footnote in the deal suggests that the Clippers will save $30 million in luxury tax.
One way to look at it is that the Clippers’ executives realized that they weren’t realistically going to be a championship contender this season, so they decided to make a move that would help the owner save a few pennies.
On the other hand, is there a scenario in which the Clippers believe that Bledsoe is a better player at this stage of his career than Beverley? Because that’s what this trade really was – a Beverley for Bledsoe swap.
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It’s tough to tell. Either way, it’s hard to believe that the Clippers are going to be a serious contender this season without a healthy Kawhi. With the way the rest of the West is lined up, this could very well end up being a lost season for LA.