The Clippers appear to be playing the long game with their latest sidelined superstar. Los Angeles will let injured All-Star forward Paul George stay shelved for “a few more weeks,” per Adrian Wojnarowski and Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link). George is still recovering from a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
The seven-time All-Star was initially projected to miss at least three-to-four weeks of game action when he first incurred the injury in late December. Woj adds (via Twitter) that the team will assess George’s elbow after giving it more time for rest.
Through 26 games this season, the 6’8″ forward is averaging 24.7 PPG, 7.1 RPG and 5.5 APG. George had been one of the leading vote-getters in the West through the first All-Star fan voting returns. The injury seems to have impacted the fan vote, as George is now polling fourth among eligible conference forwards.
The Clippers are, of course, also missing their other All-Star forward, Kawhi Leonard, who remains shelved as he continues to recuperate from an ACL tear suffered during the Clippers’ 2021 playoff run to the Western Conference Finals.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes (Twitter link), the Clippers owe their unprotected 2022 first-round draft pick to the Thunder as part of their initial trade for George in the summer of 2019. There is certainly a chance that that pick could wind up in the lottery, especially if George and Leonard remain sidelined indefinitely.
That said, L.A. is still in good position to make the play-in tournament. The Clippers have gone 5-8 since George’s injury. At 22-23, the Clippers are currently the eighth seed in the Western Conference, 4.5 games clear of the current No. 11 seed, the 18-28 Kings.
Water is wet
Never gonna see Kawhi back this year now.
Hes already been ruled out of the first 6 games post-injury for load management anyway.
None of these guys will risk their next $200m contract. They are all laughing their way to the bank and Lue too who disnt deserve 5 yr contract after fiasco in CL and as am assistant for Clippers.
What is the history of UCL tears in basketball? I know in baseball it means Tommy John surgery most of the time for pitchers with at least a year of rehab. Even the occasional position player like Didi Gregorious was out about 6 months to a year IIRC.
Didn’t think the trade could be any more lopsided for OKC….but here we are. Go ahead and tank clippers!
More and more indicators that its time to unload veterans. Plus Clips need draft picks. If PG comes back March 1, they’ll have around 20 games left. If Leonard comes back in April, that’ll be about 5 games left. With Minnesota moving up, and Murray coming back for Denver by playoffs. That leaves Clips in the play-in if they’re lucky. Moving up the standings will be tough and it may not be worth missing the opportunity to unload and retool. Go into the off-season with PG and Leonard rested, young guys (Mann, Hardenstein, Coffey, Zubac, Kennard) who can contribute, and hopefully some picks and productive point guard. So move: Morris, Bledsoe, Jackson, Ibaka, Batum.
Another LA dream dying…
The NBA is becoming unwatchable with all these stars milking injuries so they don’t have to play. No one cares about winning
anymore, it’s all about how much they can get paid and see how many games they can sit out. What a joke.