NBA
Kawhi Leonard out indefinitely: latest injury news regarding the Clippers forward and when will he be back
Bad news for Clippers fans with the start of the 2024/25 season less than a week away with the news that Leonard will be sidelined.
The countdown to the new NBA season is underway in earnest with reigning champions Boston Celtics facing NY Knicks in the season opener on 22 October at the TD Garden.
As teams face their last round of preseason warm-up games, the Los Angeles Clippers have been dealt a major blow with the news that Kawhi Leonard continues to be troubled by inflammation in his right knee and will be sidelined indefinitely by the LA team.
The Clippers confirmed earlier this week that Leonard would miss the remainder of the preseason because of the lingering knee issue but now a question mark surrounds his regular-season availability.
The issue persists with the same knee that sidelined him during last season’s playoffs and has plagued him since surgeries on his ACL and damaged meniscus.
Injuries haunt Leonard
The 33-year-old Leonard has struggled to achieve regularity over the past few years and hasn’t played more than 74 games in a season since he joined the NBA in 2011, and the last time he reached that milestone was back in the in the 2016-17 season when he played with San Antonio Spurs.
Last season, the small forward managed 68 games which was an improvement on the previous year when he only played in 52 regular-season games, making 50 starts.
Leonard missed the 2021-22 season because of a torn ACL in his right knee, and inflammation from the surgery began plaguing him at the end of last season. He missed the last eight games of the regular season and four of the six games against the Dallas Mavericks during a first-round loss in the playoffs and was ruled out of the Paris Olympics with the knee issues persisting.
Clippers blow
The news is a massive blow for the Clippers who are set to open the new season next week at home against the Phoenix Suns with the game set to take place at their new $2 billion arena in Inglewood but must start the new campaign without the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and two-time Finals MVP (with the Spurs in 2014 and the Toronto Raptors in 2019).
Leonard and new acquisition James Harden are the big marquee Clippers players and the absence of the small forward puts an immediate dent in any pre-season big aspirations the franchise would have harboured.