The LA Clippers put together one of the deepest rosters in the NBA, and coach Doc Rivers believes it is built for the bubble after being tested by the unpredictability of the NBA restart during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Clippers ran out of five of their top 10 players last week after Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams left the Orlando, Florida campus within seven days for justified family emergencies. Ivica Zubac and Landry Shamet did not arrive at the Walt Disney World Resort until last Saturday after they both tested positive for COVID-19 and were quarantined at home.
The Clippers open the restart against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday and will be without Williams, who is in quarantine, and Harrell, who is not yet with the team. Both players are listed as out of the game, with Beverley questionable.
“Well, a deep list has been created for that,” Rivers said. “And we have. Now, when you have five and six guys at once, that’s asking too much on any list. By the time the [seeding] The games begin, we won’t have that many, but we will have maybe two or three key players, and that’s a lot to ask.
“That said, that doesn’t stop us from believing that we are going to win every game. We have great confidence.”
Williams returned to the bubble on Saturday, but the NBA ruled that the Sixth Man of the Year had to be quarantined for 10 days after he visited an Atlanta strip club for dinner while out of the bubble. The Clippers will be without Williams for at least two games.
Harrell will have to quarantine for at least four days when he returns. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Beverley returned to the team on Sunday, and Rivers said his starting base is a chance to play Thursday, emphasizing the word “maybe.”
Without Harrell and Williams, the top contenders for this year’s Sixth Man award, the Clippers will have to trust their depth against the Lakers and possibly Saturday against New Orleans.
“I knew we had a pretty deep team,” said Kawhi Leonard of the Clippers, who had their full roster available for only 11 games this season due to injury. “He knew how talented we could be. It’s about running now.”
Rivers has said the NBA knew the season could start again in Orlando. The question is the ability to end the season given the increase in coronavirus cases across the country and in Florida, and other situations that could lead players to abandon the bubble.
Clippers president Lawrence Frank and general manager Michael Winger created an in-depth list highlighted by the successful additions last summer of Leonard and Paul George. Frank and Winger traded in for Marcus Morris on the deadline and signed Reggie Jackson after the point guard made a purchase with the Detroit Pistons. Both veterans sacrificed potentially bigger roles elsewhere.
Frank also signed with Joakim Noah, a former defensive player of the year. When Zubac was still in quarantine and JaMychal Green and Morris were late to Orlando due to family reasons, Noah started the Clippers’ first game in the middle. Jackson started scrimmages in Beverley’s absence.
“I think it’s made for the bubble,” Winger said of the Clippers’ roster. “But the bubble is just an extension of uncertainty, unpredictability, and the potential loss of player capabilities, whether in the short or long term.”
Rivers has said that all teams have always dealt with players who have to miss a practice or game for personal reasons. But now with teams in the NBA bubble, any player who drops out due to family issues puts a team in trouble because of the quarantine process upon return.
“Boys have the virus, boys have familiar things, and that’s why they have everything I call disorder in their lives, and it’s part of life,” Rivers said. “So we have had to deal with it.”
“But adversity is not entirely bad. You’re going to go through difficult things, and if it’s at the beginning, then let’s do it now.”
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