Kawhi Leonard has had his fair share of injuries throughout his NBA career, and now he’s expecting to return fully healed so he can contribute to the Clippers’ title aspiration from the start of the season opener. Nevertheless, he assures that he rather take things slow before jumping to any premature decisions.
Things are clear for the Los Angeles veteran, he wishes to prevent his pain becoming an issue later in the campaign, despite admitting to the press that his right knee is feeling “good.” The forward spend most of his training camp in Hawaii strengthening his knee, which was surgically repaired this offseason.
For now, he explained that the team has no plans on him competing in back-to-back performances. “I feel good,”Kawhi told the press at halftime of the Clippers 91-90 preseason defeat to the Warriors. “Just been taking my time, getting stronger and getting ready.
Los Angeles Clippers superstar forward Kawhi Leonard says his knee feels fine after the team’s first preseason game. https://t.co/0dnKKSXcvy
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) October 6, 2024
“… We’re just taking it slow, day by day and just trying to get me back on the floor. Once those conversations come, we’ll see what they’re talking about [on the best approach for back-to-backs],” he then insisted once the game was over.
The 33-year-old participated in 68 regular-season matches this last season, which was the most he’s played for in 7 years, but missed his team’s final eight games, including some playoff action. This upcoming year, the two-time Finals MVP wants to play as many games as possible.
“This is what I work for,” he said this weekend. “I strive to get a championship and I’m not out there to try to [solely] play 82 games. I’m trying to win, even though [playing as much as I can] that’s obligated for me. I try to. But it hasn’t worked out [the last two postseasons] so we’ll see.”
Even so, Leonard later revealed how his trying to prevent the inflammation from returning. “It’s not really based on how I’m feeling,” said Kawhi. “It’s more of just listening to the doctors and seeing what I can do to prevent what I have been doing because I’ve been doing a lot — a lot of stuff that probably has me where I am now.”
Former Raptors star DeMar DeRozan give this take on why the Toronto club would’ve still earned the 2019 title even without Kawhi
Back when the Raptors earned their first-ever NBA title back in the 2018-19 campaign, Kawhi Leonard spent most of the competition injured on the sidelines. This is one of the reasons why DeMar DeRozan, who used to wear the Toronto jersey, believes the team didn’t really need the Clippers star to conquer the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
What is curious about this, is that it was the same trade that brought Leonard to Canada, that eventually sent DeRozan to Texas. This has been credited for years as one of the most important factors in Toronto’s surprise championship five years ago.
The veteran guard, who today is getting ready to make his debut with the Kings this upcoming season, talked about this topic on last Thursday’s edition of First Take, alongside host Stephen A. Smith. “Never to discredit those guys. They won it. They deserve it. I finally had got to a point where I was happy for them. But for sure. I definitely feel like that. The only person we couldn’t beat was LeBron James.
“That’s just what it was. I felt off the year we had before, we just needed one more piece to kind of push us over the top. That piece came to be LeBron going to the West and I didn’t get an opportunity to see what would have happened. But the upmost confident in myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened,” he assured.
