In information that gained’t shock anybody, Kawhi Leonard might not play on opening evening in opposition to the Suns due to that pesky proper knee damage.
The Clippers’ President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank met with members of the media on Tuesday afternoon and defined the place Kawhi is at proper now.
“His proper knee, the swelling has considerably gone down. It’s virtually gone,” Frank stated, through Tomer Azarly. “He desires to take part in all the things in coaching camp however we’re gonna maintain him again from drill work and actually deal with strengthening as a result of the purpose is to get him one hundred pc so he can have an incredible season not simply this 12 months however for a few years. We’ll have an in depth plan, step-by-step, have goal measures to go from one part to the following however he’s tremendous decided, tremendous excited, and might’t wait to get began.”
This sort of ramp-up course of sounds typical for a participant who underwent low season surgical procedure.
Though the Clippers didn’t ever formally acknowledge that Leonard had surgical procedure over the summer time, Shams Charania is now reporting that he did.
“Clippers star Kawhi Leonard underwent a process on his knee within the offseason, sources inform me and@LawMurrayTheNU,” Shams stated on X. “The franchise stated as we speak Leonard can be restricted to strengthening his knee to start out Clippers coaching camp, however staff officers are optimistic about his progress.”
In the identical press convention, Frank went on to element what he’s seen from Leonard at Crew USA camp till now.
“Clearly, he was cleared medically. I watched him put together for it, I used to be there on the first two practices. I used to be actually disillusioned that they didn’t give him an extended runway… The swelling did subside the best way that we thought from a timing standpoint and it simply took a bit of bit longer for the swelling to get to the place its at now. I’m inspired that it’s occurred now and we need to preserve it the place it stays that method for your entire 12 months.”
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