“We Don’t Hold Kawhi Leonard Accountable”: Missing 167 Games, Paul Pierce And Kevin Garnett Frown Upon Double Standards Between Clippers Star And Anthony Davis

The Los Angeles Clippers shocked the entire league when they managed to sign Kawhi Leonard as well as Paul George in the 2019 off-season. With the leadership of this All-Star duo, several pundits and enthusiasts believed that the Clippers could lift the Larry O’Brien trophy. However, it’s been four years since the blockbuster signings, and the California side are yet to make an appearance in the NBA Finals.

The lingering injuries that Leonard has sustained over the years can be held responsible for the same. Suffering various injuries, Leonard has been sidelined for a prolonged period of time on various occasions. Despite missing out on as many as 167 games in his stint with the Clippers, last season, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett wondered why the Klaw doesn’t receive the same amount of media scrutiny as Anthony Davis.

Kawhi Leonard made the term “load management” pretty popular. In order to get some rest, Kawhi would simply sit out of several games. After winning the title with the Raptors, he didn’t suffer any major injury. However, he still managed to miss out on 15 games. In the 2021 postseason, the forward suffered a partial tear in his ACL. This was brutal enough to keep him out for the entirety of the 2021-2022 campaign. More recently, the two-way star tore his meniscus in this past postseason.

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett wonder why Kawhi Leonard doesn’t receive media scrutiny

On an episode of KG Certified, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett once spoke about the disparity in terms of media scrutiny that Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis receive. Anthony Davis has become the butt of all jokes for getting injured quite often. Trolls disrespectfully also call him “Street Clothes Davis.” However, Kawhi Leonard doesn’t seem to be receiving the same amount of flake as AD does. KG and Pierce had a discussion regarding the same.

Garnett: “I’ve heard things that he is super precautionary too though. You know, you look back when he was with the Spurs, I think he took a hit from teammates or at least stuff that was coming out. Then I was trying to get like some in-depth information, it ain’t a lot of information out on him. They just say he out.”

Pierce: “We don’t hold Kawhi accountable enough because him being at the status that he is, we mentioned him in the same breath of LeBron, KD when he’s at his best. But then how we talk about Anthony Davis not being available. We don’t put Kawhi in that group because think about his last four or five years, he’s missed about two seasons. Always out, ain’t really put in a lot of games together. But we never talk about that.”

Anthony Davis has missed out on fewer games than Kawhi has in the same four-year span. While the Leonard-led Clippers have made it to merely one Western Conference Finals trip, AD has helped the Purple & Gold win a Championship.

Sadly, Davis has received much more hate and negativity than Leonard despite having been more successful.

Notably, with all their stars aligned together Clippers might be one the best teams in the upcoming season. However, that’ll only be happening if Kawhi, PG, and Russ are all fit.

Windhorst doesn’t believe that Kawhi and Paul George want to leave LA

When healthy, the Los Angeles Clippers are a formidable team to match up against. With the mid-season acquisition of Russell Westbrook, the team has only become much stronger. Several analysts believe that the franchise should start looking in another direction. Maybe trade off one of the two superstars and acquire some other pieces.

However, Brian Windhorst made it pretty clear that neither of the two All-Stars wanted to leave the franchise.

The Los Angeles Clippers will kickstart the upcoming regular season with their entire core roster of Russ, Kawhi, and PG being healthy. It certainly makes sense for Steve Balmer to not make any major changes to the roster. The healthy LAC is undoubtedly a title-contending side.