Bill Simmons reported that Kawhi Leonard will be making his season debut for the Clippers before Christmas, but head coach Ty Lue isn’t so sure.
Following the report from Simmons, Lue was questioned about it and he too was asked if Leonard will in fact be back before Christmas.
“I don’t know,” Lue said. “I don’t know.”
Lue then paused for a moment and asked reporters, “Who said that?”
He was again asked if Kawhi will be back in that time frame and he again answered, “I don’t know,” Lue said.
What the head coach could say is that the franchise’s star player has been on the court shooting and “going through some plays.”
“Just doing all the things he’s supposed to. … He’s got to check all the boxes and do all the right things, not skip any steps,” Lue said. “So, when he completes that, then we’ll move on.”
Though Lue didn’t say just how many “boxes” Leonard had to check before he was back on the court for the first time in 2024-25.
“Get 100 percent. I’m not a medical [doctor]. I don’t know,” Lue said. “I’m not in there lifting and doing all that. He’s out. He’s getting better. He’s on the floor, he’s doing stuff, but he’s not ready to play.”
The head coach also defended Kawhi’s injury struggles and painted a far different picture to the one salty fans like to portray.
“For him, it’s more frustrating; he wants to be on the floor; he wants to play every single night, and it’s just bad timing,” Lue said. “It’s not like he said, ‘We get to the playoffs, and I don’t want to play. It’s been some tough days; it’s been some tough nights. I’ve talked to Kawhi on nights where he almost cried just talking about how he’s let the team down. But you can’t do anything about injuries; he’s another guy that works extremely hard every single day to be on the floor, to be on the court, and it’s just unfortunate luck.”
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