Kawhi Leonard is expected to make his season debut for the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday when they host the Atlanta Hawks, according to NBA Insider Chris Haynes. The team upgraded him to questionable on Friday night.
Leonard, who has been suffering from inflammation in his right knee, has been playing full-contact 5-on-5 in practice since Dec. 18, but the Clippers wanted to see him get more scrimmages in before bringing him back, coach Tyronn Lue told reporters.
Three months ago, team president Lawrence Frank said that, while the swelling in Leonard’s knee was almost gone, they wanted to be cautious. Last season, Leonard played in 68 of the Clippes’ first 74 games, then missed their last eight because of inflammation in his knee. He tried to come back during their first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks, but his knee didn’t respond as well as they’d hoped it would. This time, they wanted to make sure that he doesn’t wind up in a similar situation.
“I know he doesn’t like to play 5-on-5 a lot outside of the games, but this is very important to the medical staff, to Lawrence, to our group as well,” Lue said. “Just making sure he’s getting the right amount of reps, making sure he’s doing everything so this doesn’t occur again. so we can kind of monitor the fluid and see how it’s working. So far, it’s been really good, and we just want to continue to keep progressing.”
If Leonard indeed comes back on Saturday, he will have missed the Clippers’ first 34 games of the season. The Clippers have gone 19-15 (tied in the loss column with the No. 6 Mavericks) without Leonard thanks in large part to their top-five defense.
Their offense, however, ranks in the bottom 10. James Harden’s usage rate is the highest it has been since 2019-20, but he has told reporters that he’s not worried about his role changing when Leonard comes back.
“It’s funny, me and Kawhi talked about that a little bit on the bench today,” Harden said after the Clippers’ 102-92 win against the Golden State Warriors, via ClutchPoints’ Tomer Azarly, on Dec. 27. “Whenever his return is, we just talked about [it], and I just said, ‘Just work your way in,’ you know what I mean? ‘Cause he feels like he doesn’t want to just come over and just mess up the flow and the chemistry that we have been building up, but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Like, I’ve been in every situation in a sense of like being the main guy, having to take [a step back]. So I think, for our aggressiveness and our team, we’re going to still play the same way. It’s just we got another unique weapon on both ends of the floor, so it’s definitely a bonus for us.”
In 2023-24, Leonard made the All-NBA Second Team and averaged 23.7 points on 62.6% true shooting, plus 6.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.9 blocks in 34.3 minutes.
