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Los Angeles Clippers rookie Mfiondu Kabengele will reportedly not join the team during the season restart at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, according to Brad Turner of the L.A. Times.
While teams were permitted to bring up to 17 players into the restart, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said that the team will only have 15 players available once Kawhi Leonard and others arrive. Additionally, the team also left behind Johnathan Motley.
Rivers said the organization wanted to prioritize bringing additional medical staff and that they even left behind some members of the coaching staff. The team is operating in the belief that they will be allowed to bring more personnel the further they advance into the playoffs.
“It’s awkward for everybody,” Rivers said. “But we’ve decided to come here. We all had to make an individual decision to come down to Orlando. Once we got here, we decided this is our mission. We’re just here, we’re going to try to drown out all the stuff that distracts us from our goal.”
The thinking by the Clippers of leaving Kabengele behind is likely that he was simply not needed and rather than risk his health for potentially little playing time, the team kept him in L.A. The 27th overall pick logged just 12 appearances this season and likely wouldn’t have played much.
For the Clippers, the team will enter the restart as one of the favorites to advance to the NBA Finals. Of course, the preseason prediction would be the Western Conference Finals would include both teams from Los Angeles and that is still certainly among the possibilities.
The Clippers will begin the season restart July 30 vs. the Lakers.
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