Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was one of the biggest winners of the offseason, with his team being able to successfully acquire not just one but two superstars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
George is still recovering from offseason shoulder surgeries and isn't expected to return until November. As for Leonard, Rivers is going to be extremely cautious with his star in the preseason, and he thinks that's going to be a pattern around the NBA when it comes to superstars playing in preseason games.
Key players barely playing or not playing at all in the preseason has become en vogue in the NFL of late, and Rivers had an interesting anecdote to share about that. According to the Clippers coach, he had dinner with Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff before the NFL regular season. It was in this encounter that Rivers realized how the NBA preseason will have a very similar feel to the NFL preseason:
“I think this year is gonna be more like the quarterbacks. I'll tell you this story,” started Rivers, via ClutchPoints' very own Tomer Azarly. “It was a week before the season started, I was at dinner with [Jared] Goff, and we were just talking because I hadn’t watched a preseason game in like 20 years. And I said, ‘how have you been playing?' And he said, ‘I haven’t played.' And I said, ‘what do you mean you haven’t played?' And he says, ‘I haven’t thrown a pass.' I have a feeling that the NBA will be following in those footsteps. Not to that extreme, but maybe. We’ll see. If you’re at a practice, then yeah [you'll see him]. I'll answer it that way and I'll let you figure it out from there.”
Basically, don't expect Kawhi Leonard to play much in the preseason, or perhaps even at all.
Follow Us
Subscribe