Clippers’ Lawrence Frank: ‘Low Blow’ for Kawhi, George to Be Faces of Load Management

Los Angeles Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank took issue with how two of the team’s biggest stars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, became poster boys for the NBA’s load management trend.

“I thought it was very, very unfair and a low blow,” Frank said to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “But we’ve said from the beginning we have to earn it. … Were our guys hurt? Yeah, they were hurt. When they’re healthy, do they play? Yeah, they play.”

It’s not as though Leonard and George were the only players being rested proactively, but plenty of fans thought of the Clippers first when the NBA introduced its new rules specifically intended to curb the load management trend.

There has long been a perception the organization took every precaution with the health of Leonard and George. There’s no question injuries have played a role in the approach, particularly with the former, but there was a sense the strategy wasn’t just centered on that. Los Angeles once received a $50,000 fine in 2019 after then-head coach Doc Rivers indicated Leonard “feels great” but was nonetheless removed from the lineup for a game.

In the Clippers’ case, their inability to achieve the lofty expectations they set when signing Leonard and George haven’t helped matters. It was impossible not to read between the lines when head coach Tyronn Lue in August laid out some of his priorities for the season ahead.

“The biggest thing for us is making sure our players are healthy and making sure that we’re doing right by the players, but with that being said we’ve also got to take the regular season more serious as far as coming in and playing hard every night and winning games and playing games,” he told reporters.

Lue wasn’t calling out Leonard or George directly, but the implication seemed to be that they needed to play more in the regular season in order to get L.A. firing on all cylinders come the postseason.

Whether it’s simply down to good luck in terms of their health, the NBA’s new rest rules, or a concerted effort to silence their skeptics, the pair of stars have combined to miss just one game in 2023-24.

For the NBA, that will probably be considered a sign the rest restrictions are serving their intended purpose.