Clippers are done without Kawhi...
Once again another dissapointing moment for the Clipps who just couldnt get over that hump..if Kawhi is not goin to recover from his knee sprain and already without PG...the Suns will do a quick work of them from this point.
What is it with the Clippers? When Paul and Griffin were running the show the same thing that always one of them got injured. Paul/Griffin/Jordan as a core was a contender on paper as well as George/Leonard, but neither team has had much playoff-success.
They remind me of the Celtics with all those snakebitten injuries esp late into the season.
Just imagine if the Celtics had traded Brown for either George or Leonard. We might have #18 already, but maybe not, and it’d probably be the only one that trade bought us. Now these Celtics have not won anything yet, but at least they have potential. The Clippers only have Hopes & Prayers.
Trading for KG and Ray got us one championship. Toronto got 1 championship trading for Kawhi. Lakers signing Lebron and trading for AD got them 1 championship. Those are success stories. The Nets got nothing from trading for KG and Pierce. They got nothing but headaches from signing KD and Kyrie and trading for Harden. Building via the draft may be a crapshoot but trades and free agency is worse.
I would have been down for a Kawhi Leonard trade back when he went to TOR. At the time though, it was pretty clear it was likely going to be a one and done rental, just a stop on his way to LA. The hope was you win a championship and change his mind. TOR won the championship but he still left.
That ship sailed some time ago though. It has been clear for several years that he is not going to hold up physically enough to lead a team to a championship. It is too bad. You can see he still has the game, the shooting touch.
Paul George was never quite in the same tier as Kawhi in my mind, and then he had his gruesome injury. He has been a warrior, he is a good player. But he was never going to carry the Celtics to a championship.