Kawhi undergoes surgery for partial ACL tear

[MartinToVaught]

Read on Twitter

[SK21209]

Well ****. Looks like the optimistic timeline is 3-6 months but Dinwiddie also had a partial tear and wasn’t cleared for 7 months. This is really bad, I’d figured he didn’t surgery since we haven’t heard anything since the WCF.

[TheNewEra]

Soon as we have joy there is pain

[jengmann3]

Well ****. Looks like the optimistic timeline is 3-6 months but Dinwiddie also had a partial tear and wasn’t cleared for 7 months. This is really bad, I’d figured he didn’t surgery since we haven’t heard anything since the WCF.

sounds pretty bad. Kawhi's injuries definitely makes me think "what if" about his career which is crazy considering how much he has accomplished. Injuries have basically taken him out of two Western Conference finals (on very good teams though the lower seed in each series). He basically missed one full season on the heals of a top-5 MVP season. Now, (and I hope this is not the case) he may miss another season in his prime. Also he was basically one free throw away from winning an additional ring. I guess Curry missed a couple, and KD as well, but he's had a lot of bad luck.

Anyways prayers up! Let's hope for a full recovery.

[TheNewEra]

Suspect the clippers deals before the season

[Roscoe Sheed]

Suspect the clippers deals before the season

What are you referring to?

[TheNewEra]

Suspect the clippers deals before the season

What are you referring to?

Beverly and Ibaka types make little sense if this is a throwaway year. Let George dominate and groom the younger guys around him

[Clemenza]

Next man up! We all knew surgery was the likely outcome. Its PG's team. Hopefully Mann and/or Kennard makes a leap next season. Resign Reggie. Figure out the point guard situation. Maybe trade a couple of the older players on expirings (Rondo, Pat Bev). Maybe even dangle Morris out there for a trade. Summer League will tell us if Jay Scrubb, Oturu, and the 25th pick will be able to contribute. We're still a playoff team

[Max Headrom]

F Joe Ingles dirty hip checking a$$ forever. I hate that bastard

[Dynamix]

The decade spent watching the Clippers has prepared me well for this moment. When many were hoping he could return against Phoenix, I told myself we should be grateful if he's ready to start next season. Now I don't even want to think about "oh, he'll be ready for the playoffs". Kawhi is not the guy who rushes back from a significant injury. His contract being up in the air makes this even more complicated.

If anything, at least this lights a fire under the FO to start thinking less win-now and more long-term. Obviously we still have to compete, but I'm looking forward to a younger, healthier roster with some room to grow, even if this means losing a couple of our veterans. No more Lous-for-Rondos, please.

Until we start making moves, my coping mechanism will be going all-in on expecting Mann to take another leap and Jay Scrubb to have a breakout season off the bench.

[Captain Ballmer]

Suspect the clippers deals before the season

What are you referring to?

Beverly and Ibaka types make little sense if this is a throwaway year. Let George dominate and groom the younger guys around him

That make sense only if we have a young talent to play before them. Mann and Kennard probably(likely) checks to list for Beverley minutes but who are we gonna even play the 20-24 minutes of Ibaka role. Zubac is already destined to start and get his 24-28 minutes, but his replacement is up in the air, I have no expectations for Oturu. This draft just became the most interesting event for us in a summer we'd have Kawhi FA.

[TrueLAfan]

Well, the Kawhi thing sucks. And it sucks on a different level than we’re talking about. Remember the San Antonio injury? Hell, remember the last few weeks? No idea about how Kawhi was doing or what rehabbing was happening. My fear now is we’ll have next to no idea of what’s going on with Kawhi. (I anticipate “interviews” with Kawhi that consist of Kawhi being Kawhi: “How is rehab going?” “Fine.” “When do you anticipate coming back?” “Don’t know.” “Any messages or thoughts about your team?” “Keep working.”) I really hope we’ll have some general idea of when Kawhi’s coming back.

But I also see a bit of an upside. The reason Kawhi wanted to come here was the 2019 team; scrappy, overachieving, tough. We sort of have an opportunity to do that again. This is a time for players who hadn’t had a chance to step up and play together and forge an identity, both individually and as a team. It’s largely about how we play together. I agree that we’re still a playoff team; what we want to be is an overachieving playoff team that has unexpected people stepping up. I really think we can do that.

I do think part of that is going to be having some new faces, though. New younger faces. Don’t have to be 25 or 23—although that would be great—but under 30. I’d like to keep Batum and Serge—don’t think we’ll have a choice about Serge. I’m hopeful for good surgery and getting him back for 1500-1700 quality minutes next year. But that, and Mann (and maybe even Scrubb) getting more minutes at SF pushes Batum into more PF territory. And that means Mook is more expendable. Then there’s Bev and Rondo; Bev is already talking about how he wants to stay, so he’s aware of what’s what. Rondo is trade bait—I said this before, but I see trading him with some cash considerations so he can released or get a buyout and have it be a plus, or at least not be a minus, if he’s not super productive. I think we can get a little younger. And the beauty of the playoffs, in a way, was TMann and Luke stepping up. Give them more of a chance at that next year. I'm interesting to see what others think.

[NippySudz]

Read on Twitter

Skip was right all along. F me. Yeah, he's not coming back next year. He's sitting out the full year to rehab. As he should.

[NippySudz]

Well ****. Looks like the optimistic timeline is 3-6 months but Dinwiddie also had a partial tear and wasn’t cleared for 7 months. This is really bad, I’d figured he didn’t surgery since we haven’t heard anything since the WCF.

it's kawhi. He's going to take his time. He's out for the season. The guy doesn't play with his body. No sense of him coming back early and being like klay, suffering another setback. He should take the full year off.

[Clemenza]

Read on Twitter

Skip was right all along. F me. Yeah, he's not coming back next year. He's sitting out the full year to rehab. As he should.

Skip might be Uncle Dennis' mouthpiece

[nickhx2]

what's the usual timeline for recovery for a partial ACL tear? is it always a year-long thing?

[KL2]

I’m still going through the stages of grief. This sucks.

Is there a reason why he wasn’t wearing any type of brace the few times we saw him or why he waited so long to have the surgery? Not that those questions matter now I guess.

He’s not rushing back from injury but I’m not sure we can compare this to the SA situation where sat the season out basically.. His camp was not only at odds with the team but forcing his way out too.

This certainly makes his contract situation more interesting.

No way this team sits idle either. Leonard may have to sit the season out but I don’t think the Clippers do the same.

[wco81]

what's the usual timeline for recovery for a partial ACL tear? is it always a year-long thing?

Kevin O'Connor says it is, supposedly requires the same full reconstruction surgery, that is your replace the original ACL, you can't stitch it up.

So they may have thrown in the "partial" to give hope but they also didn't say when he had surgery. Probably would have been better if he has surgery shortly after the diagnosed it.


So now, this adds a wrinkle to his contract status. Maybe guarantees it even more that he will opt out and maybe sign a 1-year bridge contract to a 5-year super Max.

He's left money on the table moving on from Spurs and Raptors and now with this injury, may want to maximize what could be his last contract.

Clippers have no choice but to accommodate him at this point right? Him opting out (to sign a bigger 1-year deal) wouldn't give the Clippers a window of cap space to sign someone else.

They have to hope that after however long a rehab, he'll still be the player he was. So next May or June, the question will be whether Kawhi might be ready in round 1 or 2 but Clippers may have to really have things work out well to be safely in the playoffs instead of in a 7-10 position.

[KL2]

what's the usual timeline for recovery for a partial ACL tear? is it always a year-long thing?

I’m so confused. Most of what I read says 3-6 months. It’s a favorable recovery surgery. What could make it on the longer side is if the patient has stability issues. That’s what I get from MD pages on google. Looking on Twitter and all the doctors chiming in say there is no partial tear surgery. Treat it like a full ACL tear and expect him out the season.

The two recent cases for basketball ball is Thomas Bryant who had surgery in January. Unless I’ve missed something he’s expected to be ready for camp/start of season. The other is Spencer Dinwiddie who suffered his late December. He was pushing to return in the Bucks series but they were wanting to hold him for the Finals. He announced on social media he was fully recovered.

In both cases they had surgeries right away. Leonard didn’t have his until almost a month later. Not sure if that makes a difference in any way.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaneyoung/2021/07/13/kawhi-leonard-undergoes-right-knee-surgery-to-repair-partially-torn-acl/?sh=3da6a5d96e6c

Dinwiddie suffered a partial tear in his right ACL on Dec. 27 of this past season, just five days after the Brooklyn Nets’ opener. On June 22, he was fully cleared for basketball activities. That’s 178 days of rehab and recovery.

Let’s say Leonard follows the same that would keep him out until at least January.

[Captain Ballmer]

what's the usual timeline for recovery for a partial ACL tear? is it always a year-long thing?

Kevin O'Connor says it is, supposedly requires the same full reconstruction surgery, that is your replace the original ACL, you can't stitch it up.

So they may have thrown in the "partial" to give hope but they also didn't say when he had surgery. Probably would have been better if he has surgery shortly after the diagnosed it.


So now, this adds a wrinkle to his contract status. Maybe guarantees it even more that he will opt out and maybe sign a 1-year bridge contract to a 5-year super Max.

He's left money on the table moving on from Spurs and Raptors and now with this injury, may want to maximize what could be his last contract.

Clippers have no choice but to accommodate him at this point right? Him opting out (to sign a bigger 1-year deal) wouldn't give the Clippers a window of cap space to sign someone else.

They have to hope that after however long a rehab, he'll still be the player he was. So next May or June, the question will be whether Kawhi might be ready in round 1 or 2 but Clippers may have to really have things work out well to be safely in the playoffs instead of in a 7-10 position.

Most money Kawhi could make is not using his player option and continue 2021-2022 season in current contract, but sign an extension right away with full 4 year amount of 40% cap for 10+ years veteran max. that runs through 2022-2026. Total amount of money is around 5 year 240 million USD for the next5 years(2021-2026). If kawhi use the opiton to become FA, other teams can only offer him around 4/195. If this injury means Kawhi to get as much money as possible without any risk, then Clippers obviously the best choice. I think he was resign with us 90% of possibility before this news. Now I think it's 99%