[Scotto] Kawhi Leonard is out tonight for the Toronto Raptors with left knee swelling.
He needs it. Been a long season
He is already in mid season form
Way ahead of schedule
He needs a side hustle.
So he doesn’t have to rely on the grind of hooping.
Anyone have any ideas for passive income?
Hooping IS the side hustle
It’s always good to aspire to do as much as you can.
He should consider door dash for his days off.
Nah, movin’ food ain’t worth it. The companies are awful & everything is a headache.
Gotta stick to people. Uber or Lyft. It’s better money too.
I hear tree planting is quite lucrative.
Always.
Maybe he could plant trees?
Wow I never heard of this joke before
Ya I knew a guy who did it one summer in uni.
You can make decent coin if your fast.
At this point in his career there probably isn’t a day in his life where his knees don’t hurt
This has also been his MO recently: miss games towards the start of the season and only come back when the playoff race is heating up
same
Got to keep bribe money with no consequences, embraced by a fanbase that doesn’t care about his crimes, was rewarded with a new fat contract, and only has to play half his games this season. It’s been a good year for Kawhi.
I get that Silver didn’t want to rattle NBA Union with punishing Kawhi hard, but it’s crazy that Kawhi didn’t even get suspension.
It was moreso Balmer. They got Kawhi, and the union, to basically admit or accept the punishment, so Balmer would have zero legs to stand on legally.
There’s no punishment outlined in the bargaining agreement for situations like this even though its happened before. Idek if the players or the owners even want to agree on how to discipline something like this. Billionaires want to skirt the rules and players prolly wouldn’t complain about an overly generous owner.
On a serious note, they just showed this man on the bench and he looks stressed as hell
I just wanna say that the way I’ve seen many Raptors fans not just excuse, but actively gloat, about Kawhi’s role in the scandal is hilarious.
They’re somehow the most obnoxious fanbase, at least on reddit, despite not being close to the biggest market.
Toronto is a huge fucking market, what are you talking about? 3rd biggest city on the NBA, bigger than Chicago.
Lmao got me checking the calendar like “hold on a second…” 😂😂
This made me LOL
And so it begins…at least the Raps have nice scoring options all over the place
Reminds me of the Patrick rock meme where he tells it “you can go whenever you feel like it”
You are bad.
Two games in and the check engine light is already flashing.
LMAO
Kawhi had a long season last year too. Deep playoff runs every year on the Clippers.
Well-deserved rest
What a season, huh?
Leonard, it’s game 3.
It’s been a long offseason for him too
Fuck Kawhi and fuck the raptors for backing this dude.
Deal with the devil that is going to blow up in their faces. AND they gave 2 FRPs for it. Horrific.
Clippers absolutely fleeced the Raptors???
Damn was looking forward to Ant/Melo vs Kawhi/Scottie as well
so bummed man
Tbf he should be suspended
So should this comment
He’s a cheat
I agree
And pistons 6ers thats ruined to
Goddamn it, I was really hoping to see what this Wolves team would be able to do against a great overall defense (but primarily a terrific perimeter defense). Hope the swelling isn’t a bad omen for his season.
The defense should still be a really strong test
I don’t disagree, but I was hoping that we would go against them at full strength to see where the offense is vs a team expected to be the best or second best defense.
I agree but theres still a massive difference going up against Kawhi nd going up aginst Jakobe Walter
Edit: def shouldve mentioned this but by “ going up against kawhi” i meant as a whole, not just the defense
Kawhi isn’t as good a defender as he used to be and JaKobe is a really good defender too, he’s just more of a guard defender vs wing defender
Defensively they’re different players but jakobe isn’t much worse than Kawhi if at all right now (defensively). Jakobe is actually one of the best 2 guard defenders in the league right now
The difference isnt as big as you think my friend. There’s like 5 or 6 players on this roster that can make an all defensive team.
Don’t sleep on how good of a defender JaKobe Walter is. Kawhi is not as good as he used to be anymore
Kawhi is incredible but his defense is not what it used to be, especially in October lol
It’s more the offense to me. Without kawhi the raptors should have trouble with the wolves d. Everyone forgets we have an awesome defense too.
jakobe is one of our better defenders though, and put up the best or second best plus minus last game, but like 10-20 points (him and cmb). not having kawhi hurts obviously, but I dont think missing regular season kawhi will make gigantic difference. unfortunately how well our team does is largely dependant on the health of kawhi and poeltl who still isnt really 100% either even after a summer of rehab.
i think ja’kobe walter will start in his place so still a very good defence
Austin graves is expected to start believe it or not
“Austin” Graves. I crode
It, in fact, was not. Jakob Turtle.
I probably isn’t that bad. It is likely just the norm and they are going to sit him immediately when this happens.
Same thing we did during the 2019 season. He’s got degenerative knees and they will do whatever they can to get him to the post season.
Kawhi’s still amazing with his hands but his motor is pretty low during the regular season - there’s enough young players on the Raptors roster that have the energy to harass ball handlers. Kawhi was also fouling a lot against Washington, they might be about the same defensively (or even a little better) tonight.
The raps defence should still be good. Their offence on the other hand…
I’m hoping that this is load management by a different name.
Now we only look bad if we lose. Which we probably won’t but you never know. This was suppose to be our defensive test. I guess Cleveland will be our first chance to play a real team.
I hope it’s a bad one for the rest of his short career
Early season means better time to bank wins. There’s so many other good teams in the nba this year there’s plenty of tests
Even if Kawhi was healthy/playing tonight our Defense is still notional, we haven’t really put it all together yet.
He has tendonopathy in his knee, which sucks it’s a chronic degeneratelive knee condition where when the tendons get overworked they swell up, so all he can do is ice and rest while he gets re adapted
Damn, that’s exactly what the spurs medical staff diagnosed him with. Maybe he should ditch the team all year to go get a different diagnosis again.
You guys have to feel so vindicated after 7 years of people acting like the Spurs treated him poorly
You’re god damn right
If I was pop I would’ve had never talked to him again after that
High road and all for Pop tho
2 things can be true at once
Is it really so bad that fans don’t want to take the side of corporate? It’s more common that a sports org is lying and wants to get the player to play before they are ready.
I really wonder why him and Dennis went the route of dissing the team and medical staff instead of just saying “Kawhi wants a trade (preferably to LA) and won’t re-sign with the Spurs”
Because all the matters to Kawhi and Dennis is that their money was being effected by spurs saying its degenerative and not an injury he can just load manage out of. So they threw the spurs organization under the bus
Kawhi is a garbage guy but because he’s a good player and a winner and quiet personality he gets a pass. Raps fans are just looking the other way cuz the guy is on their team. If he was on another team the fanbase would be laughing at the situation.
Didn’t the Spurs wanted him to keep playing through it though?
Yh people are being really weird about something we already knew for years
It’s almost like the Raptors shouldn’t have traded their future for a scandal ridden late-30 year old with a degenerative knee condition that only plays well when he’s up for a new contract and has been underperforming outside of those specific years for over a decade now.
Raps traded multiple FRPs for a prayer to come in sixth and get torched by the Celtics in R1.
We know
Many do. Going by the comments I’d say a lot of people don’t seem to as well.
Maybe they got injured sucking off Steve Ballmer all year last year
(People are gonna come at me for this but idc it’s funny)
It is funny.
Those knees will be fine people got parlays to hit
Literally the same as in the 2018-19 season. He sat game 3 that season too, LOL
Like clockwork
Check cleared and now they he’s got showing up on camera.
Who says an old dog can’t learn
Meanwhile ya boy is out managing another random injury.
Load management?
Maybe, maybe not
Like woodwork
Holy fuck man. I bought tickets for this Wednesday, Raps vs Magic. I literally bought the tickets then the next day Paulo is listed out and now I see this. I’m looking at the tickets next to where I’m sitting and it’s already $130 cheaper than when I bought it… lol
I mean, he’s like one of few players known for their need to load manage.
Its your fault for buying NBA tickets ahead of time unless your new to the NBA lol
This is my third game ever. Last two were pre-pandemic, I bought them Friday night. There was only a couple left right near the visitor players entrance. I’m hoping to High Five Paulo or Suggs, or anyone really LOL. I’ll be in Raps gear obviously but it’s all love. Other than that majority of the Lower bowl seats were sold out and I don’t want to be far. I’m finally making money now so I’m treating myself. I’ll take this L . Hopefully the game will still be competitive and Barnes will still play (fingers crossed nothing happens)
Username checks out
Don’t listen to the haters. Enjoy the game. Hopefully Kawhi plays. I’m going to the Magic game on Friday
Everybody downvoting you but you’re correct about there being smarter ways to go about purchasing tickets to see the stars.
And most anyone would agree Kawhi is the #1 nba player you gotta be extra careful about tryin’ to see.
Ive stopped buying tickets years ago after being load managed a few times.
Im still a hardcore fan but I refuse to pay several hundreds of dollars to watch an uncertain product.
Just easing Kawhi in to start the season. This is most likely a rest day
It’s not like he’s ever had any knee problems after all. Probably nothing to see here.
People who don’t know anything also don’t know who Alex McKechnie is
Imagine starting a new job and needing a rest day by Wednesday.
I generally do, but my employers have never been as understanding as raptors franchise.
Didn’t we all know this going in?
I have a feeling Kawhi won’t play a lot of west coast teams on the road to rest tbh
Yes the famously west coast of…Lake Superior. 2 hour flight from Toronto.
Against teams that have no impact on their eastern standings placement Einstein
It’s called the western conference
You mean kawhi is going to avoid the good teams. Been watching him for years and every time he has a rest day, it is always against good to great teams.
He doesn’t really strike me as a guy that would take shortcuts like that.
lol okay sure
We’re so back
Brought to you by Icy Hot
The trees on our court spooked him.
Water is wet. The sky is blue.
This is a coverup. He’s clearly going to go film a new TV commercial for Daktronics.
Well that ruins the most interesting matchup of the day.
Motherfucker really wants to get nba contract money without playing basketball too lol
There’s the kawhi we all know
Well damn
And he will be out when they play the Clippers, I guarantee it.
It’s good, though. The cold should keep the swelling down.
Amd so it begins…
And it begins. To no one’s surprise. Should not surprise anyone that he starts pulling this stuff again once he got his big $126 million extension. This isn’t even the front or back end of a back-to-back.
Gave up two unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 for this smh
Brother, if you don’t think this is load management, idk what to tell you
This is exactly how the Raps handled him in 2019
2019 was SEVEN YEARS ago. People talking about 2019 like it was last year SMH. Kawhi was in his physical prime in 2019, he’s in his mid-30s now with 7 years of chronic issues since. Its not the same.
Yep. He returned 7 years too late. I’m not expecting much out of him.. and the way we rolled out the red carpet for him to return now was weak. We gave up too much. A desperate move from Bobby.
He had the best statistical season of his career last year. He still has a good amount in the tank. He has chronic knee issues. Chill out and enjoy your team.
He’s really only here for the post season
We won’t know if it’s an overpay until then
It’s been amazing to watch raps fans fail to understand it isn’t 2019.
Yep and he had prime Demar and Lowry and Siakam with him right?
Demar was part of the trade package to acquire Kawhi
Let’s give the Raptors the championship already because they have KL.
6th place finish at best and 1st round exit.
You heard it here first.
Kawhi was 27 during his Toronto run in 2018. He’s now 35 and tore his ACL in 2021. It’s not load management which is just extra rest. The guy legitimately has chronic knee issues and pain which are common amongst people that have knee surgery.
And even after missing 20+ games in the regular season during that run, he was still limping around by the ECF.
He ended-up playing 60 games in 2019, will that happen here?
My prediction would be 55 games
That’s fine, there’re 16-28 games after that I care about more. Though I’d prob feel differently if I’d bought tickets.
If he skips tonight he gets 5 days rest before Wednesday which is followed by a 3 games in 4 night stretch (Fri, Sun, Mon). Makes a lot of sense to rest him now.
He ain’t playing all 3 games lol
I can see him going for the 65 game limit
We’ll see, though him playing less will give more attention to Scottie for an All-Defense accolade hopefully
Well, with zero injuries he’s on pace for 54.
All that matters is he’s able to play the full playoffs. Maybe it’ll be 60 or 55 during the regular season, but it will be as close to 100% as possible for the playoffs.
He played 65 games last year, what is this comment?
He was warming up to play. If it was load management it wouldn’t be announced leading up to the game and it would say tendinopathy instead of swelling.
I used to post comments like this for 6 years btw
It’s been 2 games only and “load management” is starting.
It’s 7 years later and he’s now 35.
People are so damn condescending with no basis lol
You have no idea if it’s actually knee swelling or some bs load management excuse…it feels less likely they are committing injury reporting violations.
But then again, we are all just casual fans…you’re the expert on all things Raptors/Kawhi related.
Kawhi’s knees are never gonna be healthy again due to his chronic tendinopathy combined with multiple major injuries, so they’re not necessarily committing a violation. However, I have no doubt he’d be able to play tonight if a gun was pointed to his head
Also Kawhi is one of the few players you can win a title with. The gamble makes complete sense for the raptors
It’s not. He was warming up and was a late scratch because of knee swelling. Not good.
Load management and it’s been 2 games lol
The whole point of load management is to manage the load before it becomes a problem
Yeah you just sit him every 2 to 3 games and on back to backs, he’ll play 55 games. You can’t just play him every night then rest him for a month or two.
Its not load management
He was warming up amd supposed to play
Lebron already sat out a game too
Yes?
This is not the same Kawai
That was a while ago buddy, its also just as likely that it’s actually knee swelling and a legitimate problem.
It probably is but we rested him a ton in 2019.
Its fine, itll still be a good game
The raptors didnt play yesterday and dont play tomorrow
Bro it’s okay to admit your management has no clue how to win championships.
Raptors management however does.
Despite the fact they live in another country with snow and high taxes.
The deleted answer to your comment was u/DynastyInProcess using AI to write it.
You really put him into a corner for him to go to AI for help lmao
Using chatgpt for Reddit comment lmao
🤡
As long as the Raps have a healthy Kawhi heading into the playoffs it will be worth it
Basically the Clipper Fan’s annual mantra for the last half-decade.
For real, idk why people acting like we handled this guy any differently. We notoriously held him out of games every other week like he was made of glass.
Because we won and you didn’t. So we did it right and you did it wrong. That’s how it works in people’s minds.
He also was more than happy to sit, if we’re being honest with ourselves.
It’s very clear that he appreciates resting as much as possible for the post season, in which case, I do think he wants to play as much as possible.
Raptors fans truly believe Clippers medical is incompetent.
so basically do what the Knicks did with Mitch
Or do what the Raps did with Kawhi in 2019?
I don’t think they’ll want to risk 60 games again, unless Kawhi’s motivated to add another All-NBA/All-Defense accolade to his resume with 65 games.
So, they had to load manage him aggressively when he was 8 years younger and people think they can just do it again? How did that go for the Clippers?
Him resting every other game is the reason he can’t make it through a full season. Just isn’t good for his body to slow it down and ramp it up over and over again
Arthritis isn’t a torn acl it’s not really a big deal. Hes only getting older he should rest every now and then . Team is definitely young and good enough to win games without him
Lmao bro I hate to break it to you but this is how they’re going to do this. And literally outside of the Spurs organization the Raptors is the one organization I think are pretty qualified to handle this considering…checks notes they’ve been here before. And last time they load managed him correctly and it got them a championship.
I’m not saying it’s going to get them a championship but I’m just saying they know what they’re doing and so does he
No way you had to check your notes
Lmao fr that’s too funny if you think it’s anything more than load management
LeBron didn’t play yesterday as well. We’re about to be 3-0
Wall to wall nonsense this post.
The extension is $115⁄2, if you’re gonna kvetch this much at least get the facts right
“Pulling this stuff” lol having the same degenerative injury as he’s had for 8 years?
Of course no one is surprised, we dwell in reality. Perhaps join us.
BI is injured too and his contract sucks so at least one FRP was attached to get off his dead money
Because gradey rock is ass and Brandon ingrams contract is even more dogshit.
I was calling this BS when we were exploring the trade. I didn’t want it specifically because the guy wasn’t reliable 5 years ago. Now he’s aged and just wants to be paid. And of course a Paul George lite package had to be given up for him.
A surprise to no one except the delusional raptors fans
Raptora got scammed
Genuinely unfathomable giving up that capital for Kawhi. Even if you still believe in him as an elite player, he’s played like 10 total playoff games the last five years. Literally no world his body can handle a whole post season of 15+ games
Hahaha,, you have no idea why Toronto is doing this. It’s the exact playbook from 2018.
He’ll be alright. Just needed a software update
He’ll be fine come playoffs.
He was playing super well last year. If he wasn’t injury prone he would have cost 5 picks.
For a better team? He’s being load-managed…this isn’t surprising and this happened the year we won the chip too.
2019 was nearly a decade ago
Lol it worked out well for the Raptors last time, I don’t know any fans that are too concerned about this
We have years more injury history with kawhi now compared to 2018.
You’re really comparing 2019 to 2026 jesus
7 years later and sits out more games than ever before
But sure. Let’s just try to replicate 2019
East was a joke back then. Hes got a juggernaut of a bracket if he load manages and raptors dont get a high seed. Not to mention being way older.
Philly and Milwaukee were garbage
Sure if you think there will he no injuries. Season is long and plenty of players go down. Im not gonna hold my breathe that all of a sudden the sixers will be healthy in the playoffs. Pistons were first all year last year it didn’t mean much in the end
Sitting against the wolves is not good. He should’ve sat against the bulls or wizards
Hey goofball, this is what happened in 2019 too…
Nearly a decade ago
Bro he has a degenerative condition, he isn’t lazy when it comes to basketball.
Imagine he misses 17+ regular season games this season 😂. What a joke, he’ll be out of shape come playoff time.
Go take a look into how many regular season games he played in the season he won a chip here
The cope from raps fan in this thread is hilarious. Imagine bringing up load managing him 7 years ago like it’s at all relevant to now 😂😂😂. Fuck kawhi
How would it not at all be relevant lol
Nothing gets by the city of Toronto
Not in 2019 anyway
He played 60 games when we won the finals
Playoffs? Did you say playoffs?
Win the war, not every battle.
Bro sounds salty
You heard it first, and I got downvoted like crazy LOL
Bounce bounce bounce bounce.
You ever try playing a sport every day for hours at a time? 🤣
They have the best strength and conditioning known to man, I don’t wanna hear that shit lmaooooo
Oh get the fuck out of here. They’ve been doing this for years
I went to school with a healthy and young Olympic decathlon champion and he had to rest from some meets to rest his body. I know what it takes to have the “best strength and conditioning known to man” 🤣
You went to school with an Olympian. So you know what it’s like to have the best of the best?
I went to school with Grant Fisher, I didn’t know a single fucking thing about his training regiment.
This is load management you moron. Did you just start watching the nba since OKC’S first win and don’t know anything about kawhi Leonard. This mofo manages his load so hard he backed up like crazy. Man might be a fire hydrant about to explode.
scammed them so bad
They still haven’t figured it out yet. 2019 was nearly a decade ago.
I see the raps move in trading for Kawhi as just like using rose-tinted glasses full of nostalgia in blindly getting back with an ex. An ex who’s made many recent morally-questionable decisions & who currently lacks options.
Wow, he almost made it 3 games this time. Impressive
This is fine.
I’d like to see this matchup regardless. Raptors are well equipped for the wolves.
It was in fact, not fine
3 games in
Does NBA have Lemon Law?
Nope.
It’s now Called the Zion Williams Law..
He ate all the lemons.
You guys must be new
He missed games last season too but still made all nba and had his best year
Raptors know they will need to load manage him anyway, they were already discussing a plan after the trade
He has a knee condition that will never allow him to play 82 games
It’s just what it is
Better it happens at the beginning of the season than right before the playoffs
It can happen at both actually
Yes and it’s more likely to happen more as the season moves along and adds more wear and tear.
The Raptors should be very optimistic.
It’s also more likely to happen to a 35-yo. Kawhi as opposed to a 28-yo. Kahwi.
Yup.
Father Time never loses.
optimistic
Are you sure that’s what you meant to say?
Nah jk they’re probley cooked.
We would know…
It’ll probably be both though lol. And a good amount in the middle. Last year was more than likely a fluke
Last year was more than likely a fluke
Contract year
Smokescreen year
Investigation Year
Dude is the greatest grifter basketball player ever. Plays part time and gets paid full time, sometimes under the table. Living the dream
If anyone here believes Kawhi will make it through 4 rounds in the playoffs then I’m a Nigerian prince and I have a deal for you.
Like this is less likely to be a problem in April.
Bro, you’re literally a Clipper fan. You’ve already seen the movie and forgot the ending?
I am indeed. You think I wouldn’t rather Kawhi have gone down at the beginning of 2020- 2021 season or the 2023-2024 season instead of right at the end? Those teams were absolute juggernauts before he was injured.
He also missed games 3 and 4 of the 20-21 season. Made it a whole 27 games before missing four straight in 23-24 though.
Kawhi being injured at the start of a season does not at all prevent him from being injured at the end of a season.
Two games in, playing limited minutes and already out is not a good sign
No embiid.
Probably will be both, but he won’t have to worry much about a playoff run anyways
This is said every fucking year
Load management doesn’t work. You saw that in 2021 as well, Kawhi got injured in the 2021 playoffs even with load-managing (not his fault) and missed the 2022 season. Bro is 35 years old with the weakest knees ever seen. Why do people think these issues won’t happen at the end of the regular season and playoffs in the most fierce phases?
Load management worked perfectly for us with this same guy in 2019… Alex McKechnie basically pioneered it
2019 is nearly a decade ago
Load management doesn’t work as if he didn’t win us a championship after a season of it lmfao
Yeah but this is different. He’s not 27 anymore. His knees have broken down to the point of chronically having issues
He has a degenerative knee disorder. It’s been 8 seasons since then…
why tf are raps fans still saying this shit about load management when the spurs clearly started it with their DNP-Old reports?
Yeah but he’s older now.. we overestimate Kawhi and it shows
I don’t think all load management is the same. It depends on what you’re managing. Unless if you’re referring to his specific situation.
Load management is lowering risk, not eliminating it.
And then it will happen in the playoffs
It will happen before the playoffs lol. You guys dealt with that for 7 season.
Saying this 3 games into the year is pathetic
That’s not how injuries work lol. It’s not a quota.
I wouldn’t bet on it not happening on the eve of the playoffs. Obviously no one wants it to happen and hope he stays healthy, but I still wouldn’t put money on it.
Lol it will happen to him the rest of his life.
Lol it’ll happen until the playoffs. This is like the appetizer.