It appears Kawhi Leonard may be healthier than we thought, as the LA Clippers star confirmed Thursday that he will not be on a load management plan this year.
Coming into the season, health was one of the main concerns for the LA Clippers. The franchise acquired two of the league’s best players over the summer in Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, but each had a significant question to answer about their health.
Leonard has answered his.
Following Thursday night’s 102-87 loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Leonard met with the media and answered several questions regarding his performance during the preseason and how he feels moving forward.
When asked whether or not he would continue with the same load management plan he operated with last season with the Toronto Raptors, Leonard said the following, per a video shared by the LA Times’ Andrew Greif:
"“No. I mean, I was injured last year coming in, so that was the only way I could play the schedule and not really affect the team and the outcomes. So this year will be a lot different.”"
Leonard has hinted at his improved health a few times since joining the Clippers, but this is the first time he’s given a definitive answer as to whether or not he’ll be on a load management plan this season.
Last year, Leonard appeared in just 60 games for the Toronto Raptors before the postseason. He never played in both games of a back-to-back and missed a handful of other games so that his health could be preserved for Toronto’s ensuing playoff run.
Since that seemed to work wonders for Leonard last season, the expectation was that he would operate under a similar plan with LA. From the beginning, he said it wouldn’t be as intensive with the Clippers, but it’s fair to say that few expected him to be this healthy at this stage in the year.
Quite honestly, this should scare opposing teams. LA’s biggest drawback entering the 2019-2020 season was its health, as its two best players were each expected to miss a minimum of 10 or more games. That would have greatly impacted the team’s shot at earning a top seed in the Western Conference, which now feels like a more reasonable goal.
LA was always going to be healthy for the postseason, whether Leonard load managed or not. It’s one of the main reasons why he was able to perform at the level he did in the 2019 playoffs, and George is expected to be back to his normal self by then as well.
This just means that we’ll get to see more of Leonard this season, perhaps more than he’s ever played before.
Of course, it still seems premature to say that Leonard is going to play a full 82-game season. He mentioned that it was a goal of his during his introductory press conference in July, but staying healthy throughout the entirety of the regular season is a battle in and of itself.
Even if Leonard does end up sitting out a few games, this is still better news than we anticipated for his first season with the LA Clippers. And once George returns to form, the Clippers should become one of the league’s most dominant teams.