Six-time All-Star Clippers wing Kawhi Leonard scored 12 points while playing on a minutes limit in his 2024/25 season debut on Saturday. The San Diego State alum was on the court for just 19 minutes in the team’s 131-105 victory over Atlanta.
According to Baxter Holmes of ESPN, the 33-year-old considered his return to the court to be fairly smooth.
“[There] was nothing hard about playing tonight,” the two-time Finals MVP said. “We did the right steps to get me to this point, and playing basketball was the easy part of it. This is what I love to do. The hard part is not playing and having to rehab and not competing with my teammates.”
Inflammation in Leonard’s right knee sidelined him at the end of last season and during the summer, preventing him from suiting up for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. He underwent a procedure to address the issue in the offseason.
“We’re still easing me into the game,” Leonard said. “Anybody watching that wants me to score 20, 30 points or be aggressive, we are not on no one’s time frame. We know what’s ahead of us, and we have to keep building in the right direction. So we’re facing it like it was a preseason game tonight, and we’ll keep moving the same way until I’m able to build up my minutes.”
There’s more out of L.A.:
- Leonard’s return to action naturally improves the postseason ceiling of the Clippers, who have performed capably in his absence. The two-time Defensive Player of the Year essentially served as a role player in his first game of the year, according to Law Murray of The Athletic, who notes that the team brought in depth over the summer, aware Leonard was likely to miss extended time. The Clippers handed their offense over to the club’s high-scoring backcourt of James Harden and Norman Powell while bringing in new versatile defensive pieces on the wing like Kris Dunn, Derrick Jones Jr. and a returning Nicolas Batum. L.A. went 19-15 without its best two-way player. Now, Leonard will have to be integrated into the club’s current system. “Of course he was on a minute restriction, but definitely from what we’ve seen, or what we got to see thus far, was great,” Jones said. “Even times he’s been at practice, he’s been great. He’s been going at it, trying to get himself back to full form. That’s all we can ask for, and we love it.”
- Prior to filing his wrongful termination lawsuit with the Clippers in October and claiming L.A. tampered to sign Leonard in free agency circa 2019, former team strength and conditioning coach Randy Shelton sought millions of dollars from the team, according to a court filing obtained by Baxter Holmes of ESPN. On Thursday, the Clippers requested that the suit be settled through arbitration.
- In case you missed it, two-way Clippers player Jordan Miller is considered a strong candidate for a promotion to L.A.’s 15-man standard roster at some point this season.