The Los Angeles Clippers‘ NBA championship drought rumbled on after a first-round defeat to the Phoenix Suns in this year’s playoffs.
While the Suns were regarded as the better team, the five-game series loss might be easier to stomach for some Clippers fans had superstar forward Kawhi Leonard not missed the series’ final three games with a torn meniscus in his right knee.
Some analysts, including ESPN‘s Stephen A. Smith and basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, have recently slammed Leonard and questioned if he can ever return to an elite level. But PIerce this week went one step further.
What did Pierce say?
In a conversation with former Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett that was uploaded to the Showtime Basketball channel on YouTube, Pierce said Leonard should consider walking away from basketball as his injury problems mount.
“If I’m Kawhi Leonard, I would really consider retirement. This has a lot to do with what his body has been through. …If you look at the way he’s put together, he’s strong, in shape,” Pierce said. “But you have to be good and lucky. It has nothing to do with the weights or the load management. You can be the best athlete in the world but sometimes the injury bug just somehow creeps up on you.”
Leonard’s future is complicated
Since joining the Clippers as a free agent in 2019, Leonard has played 187 out of 345 possible regular season and playoff games — only 54 percent.
The 31-year-old has struggled with several quadriceps and knee problems, and he missed the entire 2021/22 NBA season while rehabbing from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee — the same knee he reinjured against Phoenix last month.
Leonard is still productive when healthy, as he averaged 34.5 points per game in two playoff games after averaging nearly 24 points and seven rebounds per night during 52 regular season games. He has one year left on his contract with Los Angeles and can opt out in 2024.
The opt-out might be a sigh of relief to the Clippers, who owe him a salary of nearly $46 million next year and would be on the hook for another $49 million if he opts in to the final year of his contract.