After undergoing surgery in July to repair a partial tear of his right ACL, Clippers star Kawhi Leonard has no set timetable for his return to the court. Addressing Leonard’s health in a conversation with Mark Medina of USA Today, team owner Steve Ballmer said it’s “possible” the star forward will be back on the court before the end of the 2021/22 season, but he isn’t willing to make any guarantees.
“Nobody knows at this stage,” Ballmer said. “Nobody knows. It’s possible. For sure, it’s possible. But it will depend on what the doctors say and what Kawhi says.”
When a player suffers an ACL tear during the fall or winter, it typically ends his season, but a player’s recovery timeline is less clear when the injury occurs at or near the end of the prior season. For now, it seems safe to assume that Leonard will at least be sidelined for most of the 2021/22 campaign. However, Ballmer still believes the Clippers are a “very good team,” telling Medina that he expects to be in the hunt for a championship again if Kawhi can make it back in the spring.
“We’re coming in this year looking for a title,” Ballmer said. “Obviously not having arguably one of our two best players, that hurts. We’ll see when we get Kawhi back. But you think through a three-year stretch, we got all of these guys under contract for this year and next year. I think it gives us a lot of opportunity to compete.”
Ballmer, who made the media rounds in advance of breaking ground on the Clippers’ new Inglewood arena, conveyed a similar sentiment to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
“Every year I want to win,” Ballmer said. “Some people will talk about, ‘We’re taking a step back’ or ‘We got an injured year.’ No. Our fans can count on the fact that we are going to try to win as many ballgames as we can every year. Now, we took a little setback. We got to get Kawhi healthy. And when he’s back, we’re back at full strength.”
In conversations with Medina, Shelburne, and other reporters, Ballmer stressed that moving out of the Staples Center and into the Intuit Dome in 2024 represents the Clippers’ desire to create their own “identity” outside of the Lakers’ shadow.
The Clippers’ have long had a reputation as the Lakers’ overlooked little brother, but Ballmer told Medina he thinks his team has become a “great free agent destination” in its own right. The next steps for the Clippers, Ballmer says, are winning a championship and getting their own building.
“There’s 30 teams in the league. There’s 29 others. And we got one that happens to be based in L.A.,” Ballmer told Shelburne. “And we got our fans. We use our expression, ‘L.A. Our Way.’ And we’re building our own presence, identity. And if the other guys (the Lakers) feel a little threatened — the other guys’ fans, I mean; the players are actually a little different deal — but if they feel a little threatened, that’s OK. It means we’re doing good.”
Can see him trying to come back in late March and shutting it down if he doesn’t feel right quickly ! Either way it’s just gonna be a year clippers get older and probably don’t win it all ! Not the 2022 favorites at all either
He doesn’t want to play a whole season when he’s healthy. He has an excuse to take the season off now.
Ballmer’s unsure… I’m not.
Clippers always have to mention the Lakers.
I felt more threatened when they had CP3, Blake and DJ.
Those Clippers were fun to watch.
What’s the over under set at in Vegas? 0.5 games?
No shoot Sherlock !!!!!!
He’ll be back for playoffs . I predict
Kawhi being a top 5 player in the league is obviously going to get lots of coverage but man I’m sick of it.
Hes either playing great, injured, pretending to be injured to miss games, or just being extremely weird. Like bro who cares? Hes either 25-7-3 with great defence, out indefinitely, resting 1-3 games for some unknown injury or theres a video of him not smiling or with a weird laugh. We get it.
Nothing ever changes.
If he wasn’t such a flake or injury prone and not a freak he would be a top 15 player all time
Simmons, he may have top five talent but he is not a top five player. Hard to build a team around a part time player.
Nah he’s in the top 5
Giannis Bron KD Steph Kawhi then Harden AD Jokic Dame and Luka
Harden no rings, Jokic no rings, AD even more injured and can’t carry a team, Dame no rings and Luka no playoff runs
Gotta be on the court if you want to be in the top. Can he? Sure. Is he? No. In the past he has been, however.
KD missed loads of time, Curry missed loads of time, AD is also always out, your not going to say these three aren’t top 5 either
He won’t be back this year, will complain about the clippers training and medical teams and not return until his own team tells him to. He does what he wants on his time line
Ballmer is the best. Who cares about throwing away some $200MM on some has been player. Don’t you know I can gain or lose that amount once I get off the pot with my MSN holding.
This will be the will he or won’t he show all season like DRose ca. 2011