While historically a perennial NBA iron man, Paul George’s recent injury history should convince the Clippers to have a cautious approach to their new star.
The NBA debate topic du jour for the last year or so has been “load management.” While in no way a completely novel concept, changes in the NBA’s rules have allowed teams to openly rest players more frequently throughout a season in order to protect their future health, without having to fabricate a vague injury that would explain their absence. Kawhi Leonard, whom the Clippers signed this off-season, has become the athlete most associated with the term, both due to how intensely he and the Raptors monitored his minutes last season, but also because of the success of the program he followed.
Kawhi played in only 60 games last season after coming back from an injury that forced him to miss the 2017-2018 season with the Spurs. When Kawhi did play, he was brilliant, posting career highs in points, rebounds, and assists per game. But, while plentiful, regular season successes were not the goal in Kawhi’s regiment. The rest he was afforded was with the ultimate goal of having one of the best players in the league at the peak of his powers in the playoffs.
Kawhi delivered, playing the most minutes in his playoff career while having a point total that more than doubled his previous playoff high. He also was able to dominate in the Finals posting averages of 28.5 points and 9.8 rebounds, while swiping 2 steals and and blocking 1.2 shots per game, on 43.4%/35.7%/90.6% shooting splits. Kawhi won the Finals MVP and Toronto won their first championship.
The Clippers will surely follow a similar regiment with Kawhi hoping for similar results. But the team’s success in the playoffs may hinge on them taking the same cautious approach with their second star, Paul George.
Where Kawhi has generally been given rest throughout his career (he has never played more than 74 games in a regular season), George has only played less than 75 games in the regular season three times, once being after his horrific leg injury before the 2014-2015 season, with the other two seasons still seeing him play in over 60 games. George has played nearly 6,000 more minutes than Leonard and has recently been showing signs of wear the last two years.
George started the 2017-2018 season well, averaging 22.5 points on 44.8% shooting from the field and what would have been a career high 43.2% from deep prior to the All-Star Break. However, after the All-Star break George began to complain of arm tightness that turned out to be bursitis in his shooting arm, and saw his shooting averages drop drastically to 38.5% from the field and an unsightly 32.4% from deep. He played through the discomfort and only missed three games that season. The Thunder ended up losing to the Jazz in the first round, with George shooting 36% from the field and 26.8% from deep after game one.
Before the All-Star Break last year, George got off to an incredible start that saw him in the MVP conversation. George was averaging career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (8), assists (4.1), and steals (2.3) while shooting 45.3% from the field and 40.6% from deep. In the 10 games before the break, George had reached another level, averaging nearly 38 points per game and shooting nearly 45% from deep.
However, at the end of February, George suffered what would be the first of two shoulder injuries that required surgery this off-season, and saw his shooting percentages once again fall drastically for the later part of the year. George missed minimal time, still playing in 77 regular season games. The shooting struggles continued into the playoffs, where he shot only 31.9% from deep, and the Thunder were once again bounced in the first round.
After the off-season the Clippers just had, these next two seasons will be considered championship or bust. The star power that has been added to the team has warranted that expectation, and now more than ever making sure that those stars are 100% by the end of the season has to be the team’s priority.
With the game evolving and being played at an incredibly high level, mitigating at least some of the grind of an 82 game season is moving to the forefront of teams’ decision making. Load management, while maligned by some, is an ever increasingly helpful tool to combat against stars’ bodies breaking down.
With the initial report being that George will likely miss at least some of training camp, it is imperative that the Clippers have cautious approaches to both stars. Though George has shown a willingness to play through injury the last two seasons, the team must find a way to convince him that a lighter load in the regular season could be the key to a deep, and successful playoff run.
Hopefully, the prospect of finally playing on the game’s biggest stage will be all the reason he needs.