Kawhi Leonard will miss at least part of next season after having surgery Tuesday to fix a partial ACL tear in his right knee, and the length of his recovery process will determine what the future looks like for the Clippers.
Leonard suffered a Grade II tear, which falls between a best-case and worst-case scenario, according to Law Murray of The Athletic. The injury is similar to what Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie had in December, and although Dinwiddie talked about returning before the end of the season, he never made it back.
Dinwiddie was cleared for basketball activities in June, and Murray notes that a similar timeline would have Leonard ready sometime in January, meaning he would miss roughly half the season. However, it’s more likely that he will need about nine months, which means he would be ready sometime around the start of the playoffs.
It’s very possible that Leonard will sit out the entire season, Murray adds. He has a history of leg injuries, and the Clippers may decide to be cautious with one of their franchise cornerstones.
Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register talked to Dr. Alan Beyer, executive medical director at Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Irvine, California, who confirms an absence of about nine months is the most likely outcome.
“We don’t have long-term data on some of the bridging partial ACL tear procedures, so I can’t say to you, ‘That’s all he needed, he’ll be fine,’” Beyer said. “The only difference is you haven’t sacrificed any of the athlete’s own tissues – quad, patellar, hamstring – but you have added this scaffolding or bridge, and that goes through a period of time when it might be a little bit weaker because it has to get vascularized. And that might take a year, and I might go slower on rehabilitating a partial ACL construction.”
The surgery comes at a crucial time for Leonard, who has a $36MM player option for next season. ESPN’s Kevin Pelton notes that Leonard could opt out and re-sign with the Clippers, which would add $3.3MM to his salary for next year and give him three more guaranteed seasons after that. He could also pick up the option and become eligible for an extension, which would run through 2025/26, when his salary would be $50.2MM.
The Clippers were able to advance to the Western Conference finals after Leonard’s injury, but they were barely better than a .500 team when he missed games during the regular season. It will be expensive just to keep the current roster together, Pelton notes, as Reggie Jackson will be a free agent and the team only has Early Bird rights to try to re-sign him. Nicolas Batum is also headed to free agency, and L.A. would have to use part of its mid-level exception to make more than an offer worth much more than the minimum.
Leonard has a lengthy history of sitting out games even when he is healthy and/or doctors clear him to play. I highly doubt he will come back this time when he is cleared to play. My guess is that he will choose to sit out as long as he can, which may be all of next season. He really milked his injury while on the Spurs, and that was not nearly as bad as this one.
And then probably play every third or fourth game for the rest of his career. Durant gets called a cupcake a lot, which he is on a personal level, but Kawhi just seems like a dude who you wouldn’t want to play with because he doesn’t actually care about the team. That’s some real cupcake stuff right there.
Indeed, and furthermore, strange things are afoot at the Circle K.
lol how can he control his injuries. who cares? dudes a 2x champ. his mindset is probably he wants to win championship in his home town team but its not the end of the world cause he showed everyone his dominance in toronto. they already made their first WCF in history on the real 1st season back (bubble season dont count)
they beaten the #6, #1 and made it competitive against the #2 suns. not bad for their second year
Dominance against a badly hobbled Warrior team.
“Real cupcake stuff” is actually posting anonymously online about it but keeping going off about guys who have rings.
The guy is hurt, his livelihood is impacted, and you’re in a rush to leave the first comment tearing him down.
Doesn’t care about his team? How many rings do you have? Durant is a cupcake on a personal level? Didn’t realize he was friends with ppl who live in their mom’s basements.
Have some damn compassion and keep the conversation on basketball, not personal attacks. Smdh.
I hope he knows how to live on retirement or minimum wage. He might have to pan handle at Circle K
LOL. both of them are some cupcakes who can play ball. I’d deal with Durant, but not Kawhi
This was the risk pointed out when two injury prone stars were signed by LAC. Unfortunately, in this case, they have not beat the odds as the injuries are affecting success.
His ego is in permanent recovery
Disappointing to hear comments like this. The man is hurt.
You act as if he got cancer or something. So a mega rich athlete has a bum acl. How tragic.
And I say this as someone who doesn’t hate Kawhi nearly as much as some others, but you also can’t deny that he quit on the Spurs in the end (didn’t even bother to cheer on his teammates during the playoffs), has thrown other folks under the bus, and has basked in preferential treatment while with the Clippers (well documented). That all adds up to an individual I’m not exactly overly eager to endorse.
If you have so much sympathy to spare, maybe give it to the folks who really need it. Because there are a lot of them out there in the world.
It is sad. The guy lives/loves basketball and now he can’t play.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been in the situation where you really want to do something but you physically can’t. Its hard.
Now it all makes sense; Tiny D is a Clipper fan. When is the ‘Western Conference runner up’ banner going in the rafters?
What a foolish thing to say.
There will be a daily update on ESPN every day for 2 hours for the next year FML
He is starting to remind me of DRose circa 2012. I think the Clippers need to start thinking about how to win without him, or at least with a very limited amount of him. Their window is the next few years. Their other problem is that they don’t have the kind of stars that make aging vets want to join them for one last run at a title, even if they want to play in LA, they would sign vet min deals with the Lakers, not the Clippers.
Clips had as good a group of vets on minimum or discount contracts that I can remember. Are there better players playing for minimum than R. Jackson and Batum. Ibaka could have gone anywhere for the MLE he took.
The Clippers ship is sunk for the time being. This means Batum is gone (Warriors !!!!) Reggie Jackson is gone (big $$ somewhere,) and they will play the season with Luke Kennard, Paul George and the promising Mann.
I really don’t know if Terance Mann is promising or if he is just a one hit wonder that just so happened to have his big game in the playoff spotlight. Kind of like Andrew Toney of the Sixers from long ago.
Mann has been promising and is still getting better… should have been drafted much higher than #48. Probably is not smart for a PG, but he is not limited to that.
Toney was good for 4 years, allstar for 2… pretty short career but longer than a playoff!
Toney was good for 4 years, but he only got the opportunity to play for those 4 years because of his playoff series. He was not exactly a top prospect, he just took his opportunity when it was presented in the playoffs.
I recall a dynamic iso player for several years… maybe they were playoff games.
What would the market be like for him if he somehow became a FA?
Look at Durant, he got a max offer injured, so I assume Leonard would too.
Great , as in Max like KD
A sign and trade might be more feasible to help teams over Cap and get Clips value tho…opens up his team ranges
But yea if he choses NYK, who has Cap, he can just walk right in the front door….then hook a left towards the Medical staff
* Dallas could clear the cap pretty easy as well and I think would be extremely interested – Mia as well could get into this boat although it would require throwing a few extra passengers overboard in the RFA game to do so making it more unlikely(especially w KL down year)
It won’t be a shame at all if these clippers or any version of the clippers never win a title ( might actually be better ) just hate that injuries factor in
That’s pretty rude to say. They worked hard and got far this season. PG pulled out some great games. Bet you wouldn’t say that to his face, or would you like to?
I’ll never understand all the hate the Clippers get. Are they a likeable team? No. Do I like the way they’ve gone about building their roster? No. But this is a franchise which has been mostly bad for a very long time. Their fans deserve to have a real winner sooner rather than later.
So while I wouldn’t say I root for the Clippers, I don’t get all of the folks who treat them quite like the Lakers, a franchise that has always had far greater advantages in terms of marketability, money, and gravitas.
Clippers have been bigger winners then the lakers for almost a decade ! They are a winning team their fan base has a winner but no teams fan base deserves a title anymore then any other ! Also not rooting against them and am indifferent to the idea it’s a shame lob city and now likely Kawhi and pg13 should have won a title !
Sign n trade , Sign n trade. He’s out for the year. Clippers win now takes precedence. They can get good offers for Kawhi. Why wait a year and hope he’s good. The right players they can win next year. If I’m Ballmer I trade him and move on.
* Sign and trade pending extension upon ink I think you mean – And agree …or at least opt out KLAW and dont royally screw Clips….Somehow I feel he royally screws Clips in the end
PG13 for wiseman, wiggins, 7, 14 and 2022 first lets go
Wellllll…if he’s sitting the whole year the Clippers better damn well get that extension inked before tip off 22
I know it’s a player option but if Klaw just sits up in Riverside and eats Empanadas all day then bolts in 23 that’s pretty damn shady
Right thing to do would be too leave and take a Durant/Brk year on your new teams payroll-
Cuban would still do it in a snap and at least the Clips get their payroll back. Or sign and trade w extension which could help teams over cap get him in and extended in one swoop and Clips at least get value
I Really don’t like the Clippers, but this Sucks donkey balls
Let him sit whole season and playoff why rush without him they are not gone win championship. Nets gone win for sure. Lakers players get injured as usual. Most likely dallas vs nets if dallas makes some moves this year. They are 1 allstar player away and little upgrade bench away from a championship team plus little more maturity from luka. Dallas vs Nets. Nets in 6.
It’s frustrating when a player sits out a season due to injury but he is still tearing it up and leading his team to wins on 2K.
Kawhi has two rings, he doesn’t need to gaf for the rest of his career. Earn that cheque sitting down boardman.
If he opts in, they could trade him straight up to OKC for Kemba. OKC don’t gaf, they reduce payroll after 2022, and Clippers get a decent guard who is in their same window. And honestly, who knows if Kawhi is ever going to be the same again?
Two teams trading problems in my view.
oh yeah, and then Kawhi can go sign wherever he can get the most money in 2023…or sign for the vet min in Brooklyn 8))
Clips will extend him anyway. No real downside except $$ (lots of it perhaps). Their draft capital has been depleted for the next 5 years, so they can’t rebuild.
If he wants out, the Clips are screwed. Even if he needs a S&T, nothing significant is coming back to Clips in the deal.
Why not. They offer most money. Plenty teams will wait a yr on him. Imo Clippers shouldn’t or don’t need to wait. With they got and what they get in trade. They can contend for next 5 yrs.
Why not what? I agree that there are plenty of teams that will want to sign him for the 35% max (which is what he’s eligible for) and wait a year for him to get healthy.
If the team that KL picks doesn’t have the cap space to do it, they (and KL) might come to the Clips for a S&T. But I can’t think of many scenarios where the “net” gain to the Clips would be worth it. Start with the fact that the non-cap space team getting KL would have to send “matching contracts” to the Clips, and the Clips (deep in the tax) would have to pay luxury tax on the contracts they get back. What exactly can they get to compensate them for facilitating KL getting the team he wants via S&T, when they start out 100 mm in the hole (luxury tax) as a result of the deal? Ballmer is willing to pay tax on KL’s contract, but on some matching contracts coming back? I guess it depends on the new team’s talent base and/or draft capital, and how much of it they’re willing to put into a player who might not play for a year. Narrow path.
Alway these comments that he should sit out a year, why rush back, Clippers should tank etc… No, sitting out a year is bad and looks bad on his career resume. He should come back when he’s healthy enough to play. That will be sometime around the All-Star break. Play 15-20 games, round into form for the playoffs, then go for it. It is the only viable route if you are a professional basketball player. He’s 30 years old, don’t waste a year of his prime, or the back end of his prime, sitting out and entire season for no reason. Tanking… where has that ever taken a team? He should come back when he’s healthy enough to play, not crying and whining around like Rose did in 2013. Was it any better for him that he chose to sit out a year when he was cleared to play already in February that year? No. It won’t be any better for Kawhi as well.
If he opts out…is there any chance the Clippers let him walk rather than sign him to a 3 year deal where he may miss the entire first season?