With a number of injuries hitting the Los Angeles Clippers this season, they have relied upon strong play from their entire roster, including players on two-way contracts.

Tyrone Wallace and C.J. Williams have been key to the Clippers.

“The two-way contracts have been a godsend,” Doc Rivers told The Crossover. “Without the two-ways and without our G-League team [the Agua Caliente Clippers], we’d probably be in last place. And that’s not an overstatement.”

“When the two-way came out, that was the impetus for us to get a G-League team,” Lawrence Frank said. “For years, we were hit with the criticism that young players don’t get a chance to play for the Clippers. Our thinking [in the past] was just that we always had better players in front of them. We had wanted a G-League team for years but now we would have been at a competitive disadvantage if we didn’t have one.”

The NBA and NBPA decided that each two-way contract player signed early in the season could have a maximum of 45 “countable days” with the NBA team, with a “countable day” applying to game days, practice days and travel days. The rest of the player’s time was to be spent with the G-League affiliate. 

The Clippers have been trying to limit the "countable days" for their two-way players. The Clippers are so careful with Wallace’s “countable days” that he often is held out of practices. 

According to Frank, “it’s probably fair to say” that L.A.’s two-way players have “been worth five wins” this season.

“The biggest tweak they need to make is to stop counting travel days,” Rivers said. “I think they should only count game days. That would help the players. We’re doing silly things like sending guys to the G-League for practice and bringing them back for games. Tyrone had to fly on the day of the Utah game and he’s missed two or three practices. He’s only 23. He has a chance to be a heck of an NBA player. He shouldn’t be missing those days.”