Kawhi Leonard is apparently almost ready to make his season debut with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Leonard practiced with the team for the first time this season on Tuesday, head coach Ty Lue confirmed. Leonard was sidelined all fall due to inflammation in his right knee, which also forced him to miss the Olympic Games in Paris with Team USA last summer.
Leonard’s participation in practice Tuesday was mild — Lue said he only did “offensive script, defensive script and just no contact” — but he looked “good.” If all goes well, Leonard could be playing within the next two weeks, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“Really good sign, I just see him moving, moving well,” Lue said. “I think the most important thing for him is just the confidence in it. Just have the confidence to keep doing it, not feel the pain and just keep getting through it.
“So it was good to see him on the floor and it gave us a little energy today just because our guys saw 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 has since been out indefinitely. Leonard’s knee problems have affected 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 that the Clippers lost to the Dallas Mavericks.
Leonard averaged 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game last season. He played in 68 games, the most he has played in a single season since joining the Clippers in 2019. Leonard, who missed the entire 2021-22 season while recovering from a torn ACL, has missed 204 of a possible 460 games with the Clippers.
It is still unclear when Leonard will make his season debut. The Clippers have not given a timetable for his return, and Lue said they won’t rush anything.
“He’s got a lot more things to do to really get back on the floor,” Lue said. “We just want to make sure he’s 100%. We don’t want to put him out there, 70%, 75%. Let’s just take our time, make sure we get it right. … We’re not We’re going to make him skip steps, and that’s why we want to do well with Kawhi.”
The Clippers are 14-11 without Leonard this season. They have lost four of their last seven heading into Friday’s game against the Denver Nuggets. Currently they are sixth in the Western Conference.
While Leonard’s health has been an issue for most of his career, a healthy Leonard could go a long way for the Clippers in the postseason. They have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs the past two seasons and have been to the conference finals only once in team history.
Before all that can happen, Leonard has to actually get back on the field. And for the first time in months, it feels like that’s imminent.
