Kawhi Leonard returned from a 12-game absence on Thursday and played 25 minutes in the Clippers‘ 96-91 win over Detroit. Although Leonard only scored six points on 2-of-8 shooting, he impacted the game in ways beyond his scoring, posting a team-high plus-26 rating.
After the victory, Leonard – who missed all of the 2021/22 season after tearing his ACL in June 2021 – spoke to reporters about coming back from that injury and about a recovery process that isn’t always linear.
“Like I said before, at the start of the season, it’s going to be a long journey,” Leonard said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “ACL recovery isn’t just one year. Everybody thinks that, but it’s a two-year process, so I know that and I’m going to keep going and going through the process.”
As Leonard suggests, it’s not uncommon for NBA players to come back from ACL tears within 12 months, but it’s rare for a player to look like his old self right away upon returning. It often takes another year for a player to feel like he’s back to 100%.
Leonard appeared in two of the Clippers’ first three games of the season before being ruled out for the next 12 contests due to knee stiffness. As Youngmisuk relays, the two-time NBA Finals MVP didn’t offer any further specifics about his absence after Thursday’s game.
“Just rehabbing, getting ready,” Leonard said of his last few weeks. “I’m not going to explain it because I’m not a doctor, and nobody in here is one. So just getting back, ready to get on the floor.”
Leonard came off the bench in his first two games, but was reinserted into the Clippers’ starting five in his third game of the season on Thursday. According to Youngmisuk, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters that he hadn’t been a fan of the substitution pattern he had to use for Leonard when he was bringing him off the bench, while Kawhi suggested the plan to move him into the starting lineup had been in the works for a while.
“After I played those first two games, it was dead already,” Leonard said of being a reserve. “T-Lue wanted me to start the games and get us going in a flow. So, before I sat out (for 12 games), I knew I was gonna be starting.”
The Clippers will be back in action on Saturday vs. San Antonio, Leonard’s former team. While there’s no indication at this point that his knee didn’t respond well to his return on Thursday or that he won’t be available on Saturday, it’s probably premature to assume he’s simply back for good now — there will likely be more absences coming, even if those absences are just for one game at a time rather than for extended stretches.
“Like I said, it’s a two-year process,” Leonard said when asked about whether he’s past the “stiffness” that sidelined him for 12 games. “Everybody thinks it’s a one-year process, but we don’t know. We’ll see what happens once we keep moving forward.”
My kids kids will have kids by the time Kawhi is ready to play and had enough time to recover and rest.
He literally just played…
Got to make sure his knee is healthy by playing him once per every 10 games. Don’t want him to re-injure it or else he will miss time off the court! What a bum
Hey man, that 6 pts in 24 mins really helped the Clips win last night!
Adrian Peterson begs to differ.
Lol AP is a freak of nature tho.
Good point slim, that was my first thought how did he come back so quickly and dominate. But all ACLs must be different
Its all the same. Recovery period is 9 months to 1 year but not 2 years!!
Sitting out worked with the Spurs so why not keep the ball rolling especially if the paycheck keeps coming?
Yes it’s a process and yes it’s not easy but Jeepers get out there and play. Kawhi Leonard is about to turn this into a 3-year process if he milks this season also.
NEXT year he’ll be proclaiming himself as ready to go healthwise and knee-wise, but will “need some time to get in game shape and be able to withstand the rigors of an NBA schedule.”
See how Klay Thompson is playing if you think it’s just easy to pick up and play like you left off.
I think that’s a little different, Klay had the achilles too.
Who said it was easy? I think I said just the opposite.
All I’m saying is take a year of rehab and then get out there. Kawhi Leonard’s working on year number 2 right now and sitting out quite a bit.
But it’s his body, he knows best, we’re just chiming in with our comments which don’t mean much. We just want to see him play and want to watch the 50 year loser Clippers win a championship. I think it would be fantastic especially with this new owner and the commitment he’s made. Would be great for basketball.
Seriously, I would love to see Paul George and Kawhi Leonard out there with their Supporting Cast 10 or 11 deep in the playoffs and Win It all. Go up against Giannis in the finals and battle against the tough Western teams on the way there. I think it would be awesome.
Everything sounds nice except it will be the Celtics and Tatum, not Giannis.
You could be right, but I’m just anticipating that amazing matchup. The best defender on the planet against the most unguardable guy on the planet.
Klay injured it twice. Second time was during the recovery of the first.
It’s easy for us fans to urge for his return. I wonder how owner thinks about it while paying him millions …to sit
You can criticize him as you want, even I understand some criticism; but Kawhi, arguably the nbas best player since 2014 overall, a playoff performer, a one on one monster both offensively and defensively, Two Time champion and Finals mvp without any doubt, will be a Big worry for opposing teams come playoff time, solely by being on the roster. Let alone if he gets close to his full capacity.
I think most would agree with you on all those points. What were discussing here is him being on the floor to begin with. I think even come playoff time that will still be a question.
Some guys sit out games in the regular season and play 40 in the playoffs. I wouldn’t bet any money you’ll see the same from Kawhi Leonard in these playoffs coming up. But that’s just me.
Another thing I realize is that the training staff is probably laying down the law on when he plays or not. They’ll ask him how he feels and if he doesn’t say 100%, they’ll make him sit and he’ll be okay with that.
There’s other guys that say, “yeah I don’t feel great but I’m playing anyway.” You couldn’t drag them off the floor. But that’s okay everyone’s different.
Good point there Gary.
Him having such a star status obviously allows him to prolong a bit more the recovery period. One should not judge him to exploit that, as his star status will be re-evaluated by the output in the games, so by sitting he is retaining it, although probably making the owner mad.
To be fair everyone expects him to be a star again, but let’s wait and see. I don’t think he will be able to play 35 min in playoffs and produce big numbers if not playing full regular season.
So many Klaw haters in the comments. That’s actually wild. Haven’t heard many Johnny Issac haters chirping, guess success is enviable.
Compared with lebron who is a lot older, how many games did kawhi missed? Its not hating, its just facts! Kawhi is as a prima-donna as lebron!
I’m a Fungi