Scissors coach Tyronn Lue doesn’t see any chance Kawhi Leonard will miss next season due to inflammation in his right kneebut the team has “no timetable” for when the All-Star forward will play in a game.
The Clippers open the regular season Wednesday night against the Phoenix Suns in their brand new arena, the Intuit Domeand then have back-to-back games at Denver and Golden State next weekend.
Leonard will not play in any of those games as he is rehabbing his knee.
Because of his injured knee history, Lue was asked about the chances of Leonard missing the entire 2024-24 campaign.
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“I don’t see those chances, but I’m not a doctor either,” Lue said before the Clippers played their final preseason game against the Sacramento Kings at home on Thursday night. “But I don’t see those chances.”
Lue said the team’s plan is to let Leonard get healthy and play him when the knee responds properly.
“Like we said from Day 1, it’s going to take some time,” Lue said of Leonard’s recovery. “He will progress. He does all the right things. He works hard and he looks good. So, there is no schedule, or anything like that. Nothing has changed from Day 1. Still working to get him where we are trying to get him too. And, so, until he’s 100% and he can go and we’re not worried about him doing anything else. Then we just have to continue following the path we’ve been on so far.”
When asked if Leonard’s knee needs to be 100% healthy before he can play in a game, Lue said, “Yes.”
The Clippers began training camp in Hawaii on Oct. 1 and have practiced in Inglewood since returning home, but Leonard has not practiced with the team.
Read more: Clippers to limit Kawhi Leonard’s training camp work due to knee
Lue was asked when Leonard would be able to do on-court practice with his teammates.
“He’s doing well,” Lue said. “He’s making progress. He is going in the right direction, doing all the right things. So, soon he will be on the court, but not yet.”
Leonard, 35, missed the final eight regular season games last season and played in just two of the Clippers’ first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks because of his knee injury.
He was sent home by USA Basketball to practice before the Olympics in July because of the knee problem, with the aim of getting the knee ready for the start of the season.
Lue, assistant coach of the US basketball team, said Leonard was fine before he was removed from the American roster.
“I mean, he felt good, he looked good,” Lue said. “The swelling has gone down. Everything was going in the right direction. So, he worked hard to get to that point and then when you start playing, you never know what’s going to happen. But he was in a position, we thought, in the right position to go forward. It was a failure. That was unfortunate.”
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After being sent home from Las Vegas, Lue maintained that Leonard did not have a setback.
“No setbacks, just working toward the goal,” Lue said. “Like I said, he looks good. He works hard to get to where we need him, and there have been no setbacks, no.”
Leonard, who played in 68 games last season, is in the first year of his three-year, $152.4 million deal.
He has has dealt with injuries since signing with the Clippers as a free agent in 2019.
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Leonard suffered a partial anterior cruciate ligament tear in his right knee that sidelined him for the 2021-22 season, a meniscus tear during the 2023 playoffs and now the knee inflammation that is affecting his playing time through two seasons.
He has played in just 229 of the 410 regular-season games since joining the Clippers.
“For me, I think the guys understand that we’re going to compete, we’re going to play hard, we’re going to win until Kawhi comes back,” Lue said. “We’re going to hold it until he comes back, and that’s the mindset of those guys. As much as Kawhi wants to be on the floor and the hard work he puts in to get there, we’ll hold on until he gets back.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
