The right knee injury that Kawhi Leonard suffered during the Clippers‘ playoff series was a torn meniscus, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Coach Tyronn Lue revealed on Monday that Leonard was injured in L.A.’s Game 1 victory and the condition became worse as he played through it in Game 2. The medical staff made the decision to shut him down for the rest of the series, according to Charania.
The torn meniscus is in the same knee where Leonard suffered a partially torn ACL during the 2021 playoffs. That injury forced him to miss all of last season and limited his availability this year.
Leonard was spectacular in the first two games against the Suns, averaging 34.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists as the Clippers left Phoenix with a 1-1 split. They lost the next three games with Leonard sidelined.
The recovery time from a meniscus tear can vary depending on the severity and the treatment. Two recent examples are Cameron Johnson, who was injured in early November and resumed playing in mid-January, and Collin Sexton, who didn’t return last season after tearing his meniscus in November 2021, but was fully healthy this year.
The Clippers took a gamble when they signed Leonard to a new four-year, $176.3MM contract in 2021. He will make $45.6MM next season, then has a $48.8MM player option for 2024/25. Given Leonard’s injury history, the Clippers’ disappointing playoff record and the financial restraints imposed by the new collective bargaining agreement, his long-term future in L.A. appears to be uncertain.
L O A D M A N A G wait
Gonna need a 3 year recovery program.
At least he has a nice contract to lean on, but it coulb be his final multi year contract. Most likely he will excercise his option in 2024, so 2 more years for now.
My question is, why didn’t the Clippers brass just *say so*. By saying he had a sprained knee, they gave false hope that he’d be able to come back and dominate. Just stringing along their fans because they can’t competently run a team.
Because they didn’t want to give the Suns the benefit of that knowledge. It’s a common playoff tactic. The real question is why anyone ever expects Kawhi Leonard to play basketball.
How does it benefit the Suns at all? If Leonard is in the injury report before the game, they will plan with the benefit of knowing he won’t be there anyway. If anything, telling them he won’t be back might have made the Suns players overconfident.
They wanted to insure they sold tickets st their home games
Thanks for the tile and moving on Kawhi. Signed Toronto Raptors Fan.
Tile? This is Hoopsrumors not Angie’s List lmao
lil D…..isn’t it POSSIBLE that Kawhi had leftover tile from refurbishing his bathroom…and gave the leftover tile to Darth?
why can’t you just think things through instead of being cynical?
Larry there is NO WAY Kawhi is doing any DIY home repair with that bum knee!
Well you’re right he’s not going to do any tile work.., and it’s sort of a mixed bag with Kawhi Leonard. One, he’s pretty good on wood flooring but two, he definitely knows nothing about bricks.
I suppose you’re right D….
Well to be fair the Raptors did win a championship with Kawhi…
Here comes all the salty raptors fans. Nobody wants to live in a cold country & pay all those taxes.
Haha if you live in the states and said this your a
With proper health care and less poverty and therefore less crime…
Far safer for the average person…
Raptors fans weren’t salty when Kawhi left and they’re not salty now. They got a chip with one year of Kawhi. How those Clippers doing?
At least we don’t have to worry about getting shot by a 3 yr old in Wal-Mart.
Kawhi got exactly what he wanted when he joined the Clippers. He gets to play for a team nobody cares about while making a lot of money and getting zero attention. He would’ve been the guy in Toronto or get a ton of spotlight with the Lakers. With the Clippers it’s clock in, clock out, get eliminated yearly and nobody really cares if you stay healthy.
“he gets to play” lol That guy must have the highest payday per game average ever!
Pretty sure that’s always going to be Chandler Parsons.
It’s sad to see a players career so seriously marred by injury.
However, that being said… compared to Tmac, Grant Hill, D-Rose, Brandon Roy and all the other stars whose injuries robbed them of their primes… Kawhi accomplished a lot.
For a players whose body betrayed him,
His is the best-case of worst case scenarios.
goes to show load management is absolute bull
I was upset about load management, but after all the injuries that suffered Kawhi now im not…. his body is fragile and he was right to try to manage the load and not to risk anything in the regular season.
Or maybe that’s the reason his body couldn’t adjust to the load during the playoffs. Maybe his body needed it during the regular season.
That doesn’t makes sense… he clearly has knee issues, it doesn’t matter if he plays more or less during the regular season. There is plenty of examples like B. Roy , Bynum, etc.
Health is part of the skillset in the NBA. You are clearly hating Kawhi.
Yes, a one-person sample size definitely ends the debate on that.
So similar to Ben except Ben actually doesn’t WANT to play, but for Kawhi it’s just a hobby for cardio and exercise. Play a lil bit… sit out… play a lil bit…
Except if you’re getting paid millions of dollars to do it at the highest level and you’re one of the best at it in the world it’s not really a hobby? Lol
If he misses the first half of next year does that use up all of his load management leave for 2024?
Not looking good for Kawhi ….
will be 32 this June.
The guy is done. You can’t depend on him. The clippers will not win with him and George. They are just never there when needed.