In news that won’t shock anyone, Kawhi Leonard may not play on opening night against the Suns because of that pesky right knee injury.
The Clippers’ President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank met with members of the media on Tuesday afternoon and explained where Kawhi is at right now.
“His right knee, the swelling has significantly gone down. It’s almost gone,” Frank said, via Tomer Azarly. “He wants to participate in everything in training camp but we’re gonna hold him back from drill work and really focus on strengthening because the goal is to get him 100 percent so he can have a great season not just this year but for many years. We’ll have a detailed plan, step by step, have objective measures to go from one phase to the next but he’s super determined, super excited, and can’t wait to get started.”
This kind of ramp-up process sounds typical for a player who underwent off-season surgery.
Although the Clippers didn’t ever officially acknowledge that Leonard had surgery over the summer, Shams Charania is now reporting that he did.
“Clippers star Kawhi Leonard underwent a procedure on his knee in the offseason, sources tell me and @LawMurrayTheNU,” Shams said on X. “The franchise said today Leonard will be limited to strengthening his knee to start Clippers training camp, but team officials are optimistic about his progress.”
In the same press conference, Frank went on to detail what he’s seen from Leonard at Team USA camp until now.
“Obviously, he was cleared medically. I watched him prepare for it, I was there at the first two practices. I was really disappointed that they didn’t give him a longer runway… The swelling did subside the way that we thought from a timing standpoint and it just took a little bit longer for the swelling to get to where its at now. I’m encouraged that it’s happened now and we want to keep it where it stays that way for the entire year.”
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