Kawhi Leonard is apparently close to being ready to make his season debut with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Leonard practiced with the team for the first time this season Tuesday, head coach Ty Lue confirmed. Leonard has been sidelined all fall due to inflammation in his right knee, which is also what caused him to miss out on the Paris Olympics with Team USA this past summer.
Leonard’s participation in practice Tuesday was mild — Lue said that he just “did offensive script, defensive script, and just no contact” work — but he looked “good.” If all goes right, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Leonard could be playing within the next two weeks.
“Really good sign, just seeing him out there moving, moving well,” Lue said. “I think the biggest thing for him is just the confidence in it. Just having the confidence to keep doing it, not to feel the pain, and just continue to keep getting through it.
“So, it was good to see him on the floor and it gave us a little juice today just for our guys seeing him on the floor, it really picked up our energy.”
Leonard, who initially said he planned to play in the team’s season opener in September, underwent an offseason knee procedure. He’s been out indefinitely ever since. Leonard’s knee issues have been impacting him since the end of last season, when he missed the final eight games of the regular season and all but two games in the opening-round playoff series — which they lost to the Dallas Mavericks.
Leonard averaged 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game last season. He appeared in 68 games, too, which is the most he’s played in a single season since joining the Clippers in 2019. Leonard, who missed all of the 2021-22 campaign recovering from a torn ACL, has missed 204 of a possible 460 games with the Clippers.
It’s still unclear when Leonard will be able to actually make his debut. The Clippers have not provided a timetable for his return, and Lue said they won’t rush anything.
“He’s got to do a lot more things to really get back on the floor,” Lue said. “We just want to make sure he’s 100%. We don’t want to get him out there, 70%, 75%. Like, let’s just take our time, make sure we get it right. … We’re not going to let him skip steps, and so we want to do right by Kawhi.”
The Clippers have started 14-11 without Leonard this season, though they’ve lost four of their last seven heading into Friday’s game against the Denver Nuggets. They currently sit in sixth in the Western Conference.
While Leonard’s health has been an issue throughout most of his career, a healthy Leonard would go a long way for the Clippers in the postseason. They’ve been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons and have been to the conference finals just once in team history.
Before any of that can happen, though, Leonard has to actually get back on the court. And for the first time in months, it feels like that’s finally imminent.
