Guys, We Need To Talk About Kawhi Leonard

The Los Angeles Clippers have played 7 games this season. Their best player, Kawhi Leonard, has participated in only 2 of those games due to ‘knee management’ or some shit. Kawhi missed the entire 2021-22 season with an ACL injury and now it appears as though his knee is still busted.

There is nothing wrong or super uncommon about suffering a major knee injury and not being ready to play when the following season begins. But what separates this Kawhi situation from others is it seems like the Clippers don’t have any sort of grasp on when he’ll be ready to play again.

Kawhi Leonard has missed past 3 games (right knee). He will also sit tonight vs Houston & trip in Houston (Wed) & San Antonio (Fri). Clippers’ Ty Lue: “He’s frustrated. He wants to be out on the floor. He wants to travel. But that’s obviously not the right thing to do right now.”

— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) November 1, 2022

A team’s medical staff would typically sit a player down for like, 2-3 weeks and then reassess from there but the Clippers are treating this injury day-to-day as if Kawhi himself doesn’t know how he’s going to feel on a daily basis.

We cannot properly tell the Kawhi Leonard story without mentioning his long history of leg injuries. Whether it’s his quad that’s been bothering him since 2017 or his foot or now his ACL, Kawhi’s legs are hanging on by a thread.

But the scary part is that I don’t think a doctor has yet to give him the correct diagnosis. Kawhi demanded a trade from the Spurs in the summer before the 2018-19 season. In the year prior, Kawhi played only 9 games with the Spurs but everyone on the team through little shots at him because they thought he was being overly cautious and could’ve played if he really wanted to.

They literally had a whole ass player’s only team meeting just to scold Kawhi for not playing. My man is icing his quad being talked down to by Tony Parker—who I imagine smelled like liquor from the night before.

So if you’re Kawhi and your quad hurts but the team doctors keep saying you’re good to go, it makes sense for you to demand a trade.

But when we fast forward to present day, it seems as though this strange leg misunderstanding was exclusive to San Antonio doctors. The Clippers have no idea what is wrong with Kawhi’s leg either.

Kawhi Leonard is my favorite NBA player. There was a point in his Toronto run where he was objectively the best basketball player on planet Earth. He had the ability to just one dribble pull-up into a midrange jumper that you knew was always going in. You could put his highlights side-by-side with Michael Jordan’s and they were identical.

And we may never see that brilliance again because no one can figure out how to fix his brittle little legs.

Can the Clippers survive without Kawhi Leonard?

Well, on Monday night, Paul George proved that the Clippers will be just fine.

PAUL GEORGE IS CLUTCH 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/oXoo6v6lsz

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 1, 2022

For some reason, people think the Clippers will suddenly fall into obscurity despite having one of the most talented rosters in the NBA with or without Kawhi. Los Angeles is 3-4 and they’re talked about like the titanic is sinking. The Golden State Warriors are 3-4 and they’re already penciled into the Western Conference Finals.

Just wait until John Wall starts jumping on the scorer’s table and throwing up gang signs.

Clippers in 4.