{"id":93057,"date":"2024-08-28T15:33:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T19:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=93057"},"modified":"2024-08-31T02:22:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T06:22:31","slug":"clippers-ty-lue-provides-kawhi-leonard-injury-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/28\/clippers-ty-lue-provides-kawhi-leonard-injury-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers Head Coach Provides Kawhi Leonard Injury Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Clippers star forward Kawhi Leonard<\/a> has played in fewer than 60 games in four of the last five seasons.<\/p>\n

However, he played in 68 regular season games in 2023-24, his highest total since 2016-17. In the end, it didn\u2019t matter. Leonard missed the final eight games of the 2023-24 regular season due inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee. He then played in just two postseason games, a significant factor in the Clippers\u2019 first round loss to the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t stop L.A. from offering Leonard a three-year, $153 million contract extension in January.<\/p>\n

“We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with Kawhi,” Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, said in a statement<\/a> (per ESPN\u2019s Ohm Youngmisuk). “He is an elite player, a terrific partner and a relentless worker who knows how to win and makes it his first priority. He elevated our franchise from the moment he arrived. We feel fortunate that Kawhi chose to join the Clippers five years ago, and excited to keep building with him.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now signed through 2026-27, the Clippers likely have that long to win a championship. That is, unless they sign another perennial All-Star.<\/p>\n

Clippers\u2019 Ty Lue Provides Kawhi Leonard Injury Update<\/h2>\n

When Leonard was named to USA Basketball\u2019s roster ahead of the Paris Olympics, it was a layered announcement.<\/p>\n

On the surface, Team USA had added one of the league\u2019s best players. A six-time All-Star, two-time NBA Finals MVP, and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Leonard\u2019s arguably the best two-way player in the NBA healthy. They didn\u2019t necessarily need him, but the decision to give him one of 12 spots underscores his talent.<\/p>\n

Leonard\u2019s arrival was also seen as a testament to his health. As he last played on Apr. 26, that would\u2019ve meant he needed three months to recover. While that\u2019s not exactly the shortest time frame, it wouldn\u2019t alleviated some concern about his future durability.<\/p>\n

Yet, Leonard exited Team USA\u2019s training camp in early July due to concerns about his knee<\/a>. It\u2019s unfortunate for Leonard, who seemed to want to play and would\u2019ve won his first Olympic medal, gold or otherwise. With that being said, the 33-year-old is expected to be healthy in time for training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI speak to him all the time,\u201d Lue tells Youngmisuk (in a separate piece). \u201cHe’ll be ready for [Clippers] training camp. He’s feeling good and I know he’ll be ready for training camp<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Paul George<\/a> leaving in the offseason, this is perhaps the most important training camp of the Clippers\u2019 Kawhi era. Former MVP James Harden<\/a> is set to return. As George and Russell Westbrook<\/a> now off the roster, he may return to his old scoring ways. L.A. also has Norman Powell<\/a> and Kevin Porter Jr.<\/a>, who have both averaged a career-high of at least 19.0 points per game. Nonetheless, the Clippers enter 2024-25 with more questions than ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main one \u2014how many games Leonard will be able to play \u2014is the most constant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Clippers star forward Kawhi Leonard has played in fewer than 60 games in four of the last five seasons. However, he played in 68 regular season games in 2023-24, his highest total since 2016-17. In the end, it didn\u2019t matter. Leonard missed the final eight games of the 2023-24 regular season due inflammation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":93073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,27,62,3,60],"tags":[168,4745,49503,1052,2081],"class_list":["post-93057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","category-olympics","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-training-camp","tag-olympics","tag-team-usa"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}