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Kawhi Leonard had Offseason Knee Surgery
It’s been a while since we have heard from the Clippers leadership, but tonight, with training camp a week off, Lawrence Frank and Ty Lue spoke to the media. Amidst all the usual talk of playing faster, taking more threes, and having a stronger identity, some big news was dropped – Kawhi Leonard had a procedure this offseason on his troublesome knee.
This news might not be as shocking to non-Clippers fans as it is to the Clippers’ faithful. Every time we have heard about Kawhi this offseason it has been a similar story – he has swelling, and it’s going down slower than expected. The slow nature of his recovery seems to be why he was sent home from Team USA before the Olympics. Thus, even though nothing came up on the initial scans in March or April, it seemed very likely that a “scope” would need to be done to see what was going on.
Now, it’s unclear what kind of knee procedure happened and when it occurred (Update: A Shams and Law Murray report is that it happened in May). It can’t have been anything too serious – like an ACL – because there wouldn’t be talk of him doing strengthening drills in training camp. But it’s possible outside of the scope there was some other cleanup surgery done.
It seems that Kawhi’s knee swelling is finally going down – but is not fully gone yet. Lawrence Frank would not commit to Kawhi being ready for the start of the regular season, and if I had to make a prediction, I don’t think he’ll play on opening night. It’s grim news for the first season at the new Intuit Dome, and while I think the Clippers can at least be competitive without Kawhi for a few weeks, they are going to sink in the West standings if he’s out for too long.
In other news, Ty Lue said that starting spots outside of Harden, Kawhi, and Zu are up in the air. The presumed other starters have been Terance Mann and Derrick Jones Jr., but it’s possible Norm Powell, Amir Coffey, Nic Batum, or even Kris Dunn could make their way in as well. It will be interesting to see how the battles for rotation spots shape up in training camp and preseason.
In addition to Kawhi, Trentyn Flowers has a wrist injury and will be out for camp as well. Lawrence Frank also mentioned there were further injuries, but would not specify which players were effected and that updates would be provided as appropriate. Hopefully none are serious, as the Clippers are starting behind the eight-ball as it is. For now, all we can do is wait and see.