Jerry West Answers Question About Kawhi Leonard Returning From Injury This Season

LA Clippers consultant Jerry West provided some encouraging insight into Kawhi Leonard's injury progress

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As the LA Clippers fight to maintain playoff positioning in a tightly contested Western Conference, one of the greatest players of all-time remains seated on their bench. Kawhi Leonard underwent ACL reconstruction surgery in the offseason, keeping him sidelined indefinitely. While many initially believed that Kawhi could be out the entire 2021-22 NBA season, there have been some optimistic developments since then.

One of these first positive developments came on media day, when Kawhi himself indicated a potential desire to return this season. When asked about why he decided to sign a long-term deal with the Clippers, rather than a 1+1, Kawhi said that "I wanted to secure some money, and I wanted to be able to come back if I was able to this year. If I would have took the one and one, I probably would have not played just to be cautious, and opted out and took a five-year."

Kawhi's response indicated that a factor in him signing a long-term deal with the Clippers, was indeed his desire to potentially play this year. Since he has secured long-term money, he is more likely to come back this year than if he were set to enter free agency again next summer after signing a 1+1.

That comment from Kawhi came at the end of September, and on October 1st, Farbod Esnaashari of AllClippers reported that team sources indicated that those on the team were impressed with Kawhi's progress, and "cautiously optimistic" about a potential return this season. While the Clippers were understandably approaching Kawhi's injury with caution, preparing to shut him down if any red flags arose, those red flags were not present at the time of this report.

In the months since this report, not only has there seemingly been an absence of red flags, but positive developments surrounding Kawhi's progress seem to be relatively consistent. On November 10th, TNT's Allie LaForce reported that the Clippers were "still really hopeful that they'll get Kawhi Leonard back before the end of the season." LaForce added that "Ty Lue told us right before the game that he was really encouraged that [Kawhi] was doing some explosive box jumping just a couple of days ago. He's been shooting for weeks, and of course, actively involved in the coach's meetings."

While updates have been limited since this report from LaForce, LA Clippers consultant Jerry West was recently on The TK Show Podcast with The Athletic's Tim Kawakami, and was asked about a potential return from Kawhi this season. West said that "I have to say, I've never seen a harder working person in my life. If you look at him now, he looks great. Doing things that I didn't expect he could do. But I'm not a doctor, and certainly don't know what the ongoing problems for not being in tip-top shape, ready to play a much quicker and agile game are, but just watching him, my goodness, if you watch him walk around, you would never know that he had that operation."

West concluded his answer by saying there's more to it, because of the tremendous burden an athlete places on their body each time they go out and compete, but according to him, Kawhi Leonard looks much better than many expected he would at this point. Whether or not any of this indicates a return this season is unclear, but updates like this are certainly more encouraging than the contrary.

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