Max Strus is set to make his Los Angeles Clippers debut on Monday against the Toronto Raptors after recovering from a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot. The guard missed the first six games of the season with the injury.
Max Strus, 30, was acquired from the Cleveland Cavaliers in a five team trade in August. He hurt his foot in the first quarter of the Clippers’ preseason opener against Golden State on October 4 in Hawaii, and the team said at the time that he would be re-evaluated after about four weeks.
He took a step toward a return on Sunday when he went through a five on five practice with the team’s G League affiliate in San Diego, according to ESPN reporter Ohm Youngmisuk. The Clippers then cleared him for Monday’s game, which comes on the second night of a back to back after a loss to Golden State on Sunday.
Max Strus and a thin Clippers rotation
The timing matters because the Clippers are short of players. Los Angeles came into Monday on a five game losing run at 1-5, and the injury list for the Raptors game included six players.
Forwards Rui Hachimura and Derrick Jones Jr. were both out for Monday’s game, with quad soreness and knee soreness respectively. Bradley Beal has no timetable for a return with a knee problem, Brandon Ingram is out after heel surgery, Jordan Miller is out after shoulder surgery, and Yanic Konan Niederhauser is out with a foot injury.
Max Strus was expected to start beside Kris Dunn and Darius Garland, according to pregame reporting, because the absences left the Clippers short in the front court and in need of shooting on the wing.
Max Strus and the Cleveland season before the trade
Last season was also broken up by injury for Max Strus. He suffered a fracture in his left foot in August of last year and did not make his 2025-26 debut for Cleveland until March 15. He then played 12 games, starting five, and averaged 11.2 points and 5.4 rebounds.
The Clippers traded for him anyway, and his shooting was part of the reason. Strus has built his NBA career on three point shooting and movement without the ball, and Los Angeles needs both while its rotation is thin.
The return of Max Strus does not fix the injury list on its own. The Clippers still have starters out and a bench stretched thin, and the Raptors game was a test of how much one returning shooter could change a team that has struggled to turn good stretches into wins.
What the Clippers need from Strus
Los Angeles has lost five straight games, and the losses have come with promising offensive stretches that did not last. A shooter who can space the floor gives the ball handlers more room, and it gives the Clippers a scoring option when defences pack the paint.
Strus will be watched for his minutes as much as his shooting. He has not played a regular season game since March, and his foot injury kept him out of the first six games of this season, so the Clippers are likely to build his workload up rather than ask for a full game at once.
The wait for Max Strus has been a long one for Clippers supporters. He arrived in August, hurt his foot in the first preseason game, and watched the first six games of the regular season from the sideline while the team lost five in a row. Monday was the first night he could change that from the court rather than from the bench.
His shooting record gives the Clippers a reason to trust the return. Max Strus has made a career from three point shooting and movement without the ball, and those are the two things a short handed team misses most when its rotation is stretched. The question is how quickly his timing returns after months without a regular season game.
The Raptors game is the first chance to see how he fits. The Clippers host Toronto at home, and Strus is available for the first time in a Los Angeles uniform.