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Paul Pierce Thinks Kawhi Leonard Hasn’t Been Held Accountable Enough For His Lack Of Availability: “Always Being In Street Clothes”

As one of the best players in the league, Kawhi Leonard is a real problem on the court when healthy. He has an unmatched defensive ability while offering a fairly prolific offensive package. Kawhi can hold a candle to nearly anyone in the league and is a guy that has never been afraid of big moments.

Unfortunately, injuries have ravaged Kawhi Leonard over the past couple of years. In fact, the Los Angeles Clippers superstar has missed the entire of last season due to a right knee injury and has only played a combined 109 regular season games in his three prior seasons with the Clippers.

The Clippers kicked off their 2022-23 NBA campaign with a 5-4 record. They have been decent so far, but are clearly missing Leonard, who has only played two games this season and is currently sidelined with knee stiffness.

This being the case, NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce speaks out on Leonard’s lack of availability for his team, specifically saying that he hasn’t been held accountable enough when he’s being put in the same status as LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

“We don’t hold Kawhi accountable enough because of him being at the status that he is,” Pierce said. “We mention 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’re going to 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 a lot of games together, but we never talk about that.”

“I truly believe that something’s truly not right long-term with Kawhi,” Pierce said. “We don’t say nothing about him always being in street clothes. How much of Kawhi have we seen? We love watching Kawhi. At his peak, he’s one of the best in the league. We want to catch him on the court with this Clipper team. Think about a healthy Clipper team with Kawhi with the talent they got.”

“How we talk about Anthony Davis not being available, we don’t put Kawhi in that group… We don’t say nothing about him always being in street clothes.”

Paul Pierce on Kawhi Leonard

(via @shobasketball)pic.twitter.com/q7KL2K9Lhg

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) November 5, 2022