Los Angeles Clippers big man Serge Ibaka played in just 41 games last season and featured only twice in the postseason due to a back injury. He ultimately underwent surgery and is still on the road to recovery with the 2021-22 campaign quickly approaching.
Clippers president Lawrence Frank offered an update on Ibaka during Friday's presser and gave some insight on where he's at. Via The Athletic's Law Murray:
“Those of you who know Serge, he has a maniacal work ethic,” Frank said. “He’s attacked his rehab since having back surgery. Serge is one of those guys that you got to tell him, ‘You’re working a little bit too hard.’ So he’s made terrific progress. He’ll start at training camp doing non-contact, and we’ll just assess kind of his progress and where he’s going.
“Once we introduce contact at a certain point, he’ll be in a small group, probably one-on-one focus, and then build up to that, see how he responds to it. So we’ll just take it in phases. (Clippers chairman of performance, health and wellness) Dr. Meyer has done a great job with Serge’s rehab and like I said Serge attacks it daily. So, we’ll probably have more information as we get deeper into the month.”
By the sounds of it, we could see Ibaka back on the court at some point this fall. When healthy, he was quite effective last season, averaging 11.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per night. With Kawhi Leonard potentially out for the entire campaign, the Clippers will need all the help they can get. Hopefully, Serge Ibaka returns sooner rather than later.
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