Clippers president gives promising Kawhi Leonard injury update

Kawhi Leonard is one of the greatest basketball players on the planet. However, he's had a string of bad luck with injuries for over a half-decade at this point, including a torn ACL with the Clippers in 2021 and a torn meniscus last month. 

Los Angeles Clippers president Lawrence Frank believes Leonard's current injury won't sideline him too long. Frank shared that Leonard had a procedure done on June 6 and everything is trending in the right direction.

"Just a cleanup, went terrific," Frank said, per ESPN. "Very quick procedure. He feels great. Eight-week recovery from time of surgery where you are back on the court playing like it was a game. We are very fortunate that it was just a quick little cleanup."

Leonard suffered a torn meniscus in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs. Leonard had 38 and 31 in the first two games and the series was tied 1-1 with the Phoenix Suns. The loss of Leonard did the Clippers in and they'd lose the series 4-1. 

"It's very deflating," head coach Ty Lue said at the time. "I think more so for Kawhi, because you have a guy who's coming off ACL, hasn't missed a rehab session, eats right, eats clean, does everything he can for his body, works extremely hard to get to this point. Then you have something like this happen."

Frank said that Leonard will be "100%" ready to go for training camp, which is the best news that could have been hoped for. All things considered, Leonard's injury could have been much worse.

Leonard appeared in 52 regular season games last season, averaging 23.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. The last time he played more than 57 games in a season was 2019 with 60. The more games Leonard's on the floor, the higher the Clippers' playoff seed will be next season. However, if Leonard is sidelined for any lengthy period of time, that would spell doom yet again for a franchise that's never won a championship.