Brandon Ingram will not be in uniform when the Clippers open the season, leaving the club to begin camp with a major frontcourt question already on the board. The two-time All-Star forward is recovering from right-heel surgery and a partial Achilles tear, with no return date set.
Ingram’s recovery will extend beyond opening night
Ingram arrived in Los Angeles earlier this month in the deal that sent Kawhi Leonard to Toronto, but the Clippers will have to wait for his first appearance. The forward said at Monday’s media day that the rehab process has been positive, though his training-camp work will be limited.
“Recovery has been moving in the right direction,” Ingram said. “I will not be doing much in camp, but I expect to be on the floor for some of it.”
- Ingram had surgery on his right heel in May.
- Doctors also found and treated a previously undisclosed partial Achilles injury during that procedure.
- He will miss the start of the regular season.
- The Clippers have not announced a timetable for him to resume playing.
Interim president of basketball operations Trent Redden said the team got a clearer picture of Ingram’s condition after he joined the organization and continued his rehabilitation in Los Angeles.
“Once he was here, we were able to better assess where he was in the process,” Redden said. “He will not be ready for the opener, and we will reassess from there.”
Clippers inherit a productive scorer on the mend
Ingram’s heel issue kept him out of Toronto’s final two games in its first-round playoff loss to Cleveland. Before the injury interrupted his postseason, he averaged 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists for the Raptors last season.
His eventual return would give the Clippers another long, high-volume wing creator, but the early camp plan will be built without him. The immediate focus is simply getting him through the next stages of recovery without forcing a calendar onto the process.
Beal, Miller and Niederäauser also open camp sidelined
The Ingram update was one of several injury items facing the Clippers as training camp opens Tuesday in Hawaii. Bradley Beal will not be available at the beginning of camp because of inflammation in his right knee.
- Bradley Beal: Right-knee inflammation will keep him out at the opening of camp. He played only six games last season after undergoing surgery in November for a fractured left hip.
- Jordan Miller: He suffered a torn left rotator cuff during a summer pickup run, underwent surgery and is scheduled for another evaluation in five months.
- Yanic Konan Niederäauser: He is recovering from the foot-ligament tear that ended his season in March and will not be ready for the regular-season opener.
With Ingram, Beal and Niederäauser unavailable for opening night and Miller facing a longer rehabilitation window, the Clippers’ early rotation work in Hawaii will begin with several spots and workloads still unsettled.
