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INGLEWOOD, CA — The Los Angeles Clippers continue to preach patience with Kawhi Leonard as the star forward ramps up towards a return to game action.
As the calendar flips to 2025, Leonard is doing more and more on the court, but there are still a few more things he needs to do before the team is comfortable throwing him back out on the floor.
Clippers see Kawhi Leonard take next step in return
Kawhi Leonard participated in his first couple of five-on-five practices during the Clippers' Christmas break. Despite the practices, head coach Tyronn Lue said that Leonard still needs to participate in more five-on-five practices before the team is comfortable with him returning to the court.
“[He still needs to] play some more five-on-five,” Lue said before the Clippers embarked on their three-game road trip to end 2024. “We've got to get him all the days we can get him in, keep stacking the days, and see how he feels after that.”
Kawhi Leonard was able to travel with the Clippers on their three-game mid-West trip featuring two games in Dallas and a game against the Memphis Grizzlies. It was the first trip outside of the team's training camp in Hawaii that Leonard traveled for, marking a big step forward in his plans for a return.
“It was good,” Lue added. “He had a couple good days. Going on this next step, it's not really a chance to practice since we play three games in four nights, so it's not really worth going because we won't have any practice days.”
During a three day break at home for Christmas, Leonard took part in his first five-on-five action at practice. The Clippers' star has been vocal about not playing five-on-five outside of game action, but the team has insisted on seeing him play and evaluating his body's post-practice response.
“I know he doesn't like to play five-on-five a lot outside of the games, but this is very important to the medical staff, to Lawrence [Frank], and to our group as well, just making sure he's getting the right amount of reps, making sure he's doing everything so this doesn't occur again, so we can kind of monitor the fluid and see how it's working. So far it's been really good, and we just want to continue to keep progressing.
“It's hard to get those [practice] days because we have three games in four nights coming up, so he won't travel, he won't go on this trip. He'll stay back and he'll practice with our G League team to be able to get those reps in and get those five-on-five games in.”
After their game on Sunday, the San Diego Clippers will only play on Wednesday, and Kawhi Leonard is expected to take part in five-on-five practices during the off days.
The NBA Clippers will return home for a home matchup against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, which is trending towards being the game that Kawhi Leonard makes his season debut, assuming the forward suffers no setbacks in the process of practicing with the G League team.
Leonard also goes through his individual shooting workouts as soon as he gets media to leave the building following Clippers practices. Those weren't happening to start the season, marking another signal that Leonard is close to returning.
