The Los Angeles Clippers are getting ready for their season opening against the Los Angeles Lakers tonight. The Clippers are reportedly considering using Kawhi Leonard off the bench when he makes his comeback, according to Chris Haynes of TNT.
Los Angeles Clippers have been considering the possibility of bringing Kawhi Leonard off the bench to start the season in order to manage his minutes, league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 20, 2022
Kawhi Leonard hasn’t played in 15 months due to a damaged right ACL. He participated in two preseason games and started both of them. In 16.5 minutes per game, he averaged 9.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists.
The Clippers star claims that he is in terrific health going into the season’s first game and has not encountered any setbacks.
“I still feel good. Moving in the right direction. Really haven’t been no flare ups or setbacks, so I feel good.”
– Kawhi Leonard entering tomorrow’s Clippers-Lakers matchup pic.twitter.com/uPh6137lPs
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 19, 2022
Prior to the game against the Lakers, Kawhi Leonard informed the media, “I still feel fine. Moving forward in the proper way. I feel good because there haven’t been any flare-ups or setbacks.
“You want to get experience in games. Naturally, I should play more games than I practise, and as I previously stated, we should just keep improving from the first game, since that will allow us to see where we are headed. A process is underway, and it begins tomorrow.
In order to protect Leonard as he recovers from his torn ACL, the Clippers will play it carefully, according to head coach Tyronn Lue on Wednesday.
“We have a goal in mind for what we want those guys to play, so I’m not going to let you guys in on that, but just make sure we do the right thing, just being smart and trusting the data that we’ve received back from those guys and just making sure their body is feeling well, how they’re feeling, and then we can continue to slowly, slowly progress,” the speaker said. But even if they want to participate and perform more, we have to make sure that we’re treating those players fairly right now.
Lue has made it clear that keeping Kawhi Leonard and John Wall healthy this year has been a top focus for the team throughout the preseason. That might entail tightly controlling his playing time and workload in the first few months of the season.
On June 14, 2021, during Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Utah Jazz, Leonard tore his ACL. He initially believed he would be fine for the remainder of the postseason, but more testing revealed a torn ACL.
A month later, he had surgery to repair the ruptured ligament, and since then, he has been working hard to rejoin the Clippers’ starting lineup.
Kawhi Leonard played his first NBA game on October 3rd, albeit a preseason contest against the Portland Trail Blazers. He made the game’s first shot attempt, and in 16 minutes, he finished with 11 points, four rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
Kawhi Leonard s first bucket pic.twitter.com/u0PVgDVjI4
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 4, 2022
On TNT, the Clippers-Lakers game is scheduled to begin at 7 PM PST.
Kawhi Leonard may come off the bench for the Clippers when they play the Lakers, according to ClutchPoints.
