The result of what this season will be for the LA Clippers is largely dependent on Kawhi Leonard and his health.
Kawhi is dealing with a partial ACL tear, and timetables for an injury like that are very hard to narrow down and figure out. Sometimes those type of recoveries only take about six or seven months. (Spencer Dinwiddie, anyone?)
However, everyone’s different, and we really don’t know what’s going to happen. We did, however, see a very encouraging sign Sunday at a Clippers open practice.
Kawhi Leonard put shots up at an LA Clippers’ open practice on Sunday.
Kawhi Leonard went to practice at the Galen Center over at USC, and was seen taking some mid-range shots before it started.
Kawhi Leonard — sidelined indefinitely following ACL surgery in July — gets some easy shots up here while the Clippers practice on the other end. pic.twitter.com/r1Ep00zsBl
— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) October 17, 2021
Leonard suffered this injury in June. There hasn’t been any talk of him returning anytime soon.
For what it’s worth, FiveThirtyEight projects Leonard to be back by March 1st.
That wouldn’t be awful, but we of course hope he’ll be here before then. What the Clippers absolutely need is for Kawhi to be 100% by the time the postseason starts. It’s one thing to have him playing in the postseason, but the team needs him to be at his peak ability when the playoffs start to really be able to make a run at this thing.
With no Leonard for much of this regular season, getting a top three or four seed isn’t going to be easy, so we may be playing in tough matchups in every round of the postseason. We can’t afford to go into it without our franchise guy.
Seeing Leonard working on his game at practice, however, is certainly a good sign that gives his recovery a little momentum.