Clippers will hold Kawhi Leonard out of drills during training camp

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers have gone through a variety of treatments to control the inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee since the end of last season, and while the inflammation has gone down, the star forward will be held out of drills in next week’s training camp to get him back to full strength.

Clippers president Lawrence Frank said Tuesday that the swelling in Leonard’s knee had decreased “significantly.” But a cautious Frank was also noncommittal about Leonard being ready for the regular season.

“I think that the timing’s all going to basically depend on how his knee responds to each phase,” Frank said. “No one has a crystal ball.”

Leonard and the Clippers are trying to get the knee to full strength and want to avoid the situation like during the first round of the playoffs against Dallas when the consistent inflammation returned and limited Leonard to two games during the loss in six games to the Mavericks.

Clippers coach Ty Lue said that there isn’t a plan yet to implement Leonard into any practices and that they would rely on the team medical staff’s guidance. The plan, Frank said, is to have Leonard work on strength training for his knee before returning.

“We’re just really going to focus on strengthening and loading,” Frank said. “I think we learned some lessons. Just if you think about it, he desperately wanted to come back and play in that Dallas series, and within a game and a half, the inflammation came where it wasn’t manageable, so we don’t want to put ourselves in that position.”

Leonard, 33, missed the final eight games of the regular season with inflammation in his right knee. He returned to the playoffs to play in Games 2 and 3 against Dallas before missing the remaining three games of the Clippers’ first-round defeat.

The inflammation has been described as stubborn. Leonard was able to get it to a manageable situation when he participated at USA Basketball’s training camp in July. USA Basketball opted to replace Leonard with Celtics point guard Derrick White after camp.

Frank said at the time that Leonard had not suffered a setback. When asked in July if Leonard underwent any type of procedures or treatment to his right knee before USA Basketball camp, Frank said he would not get into specifics other than that Leonard had worked very hard entering USA camp.

The Clippers and Leonard are doing everything they can to prevent the inflammation from becoming an issue this season.

“I think the encouraging thing is we’ve seen progress,” Frank said on Tuesday. “This was a real tricky thing in terms of the inflammation. We’re kind of searching for answers along the way, and with time we continue to learn more about what works, what hasn’t. It’s truly unfortunate that he’s had to deal with this, but I think we’re definitely trending in the right direction.”

Frank said Leonard is “encouraged now” with where the inflammation is.

“We got the knee in a really, really good place,” Frank said. “[He came] back for Dallas [in the playoffs] and it has been manageable since. But we really, really spent the offseason trying to get this 100% and I think we’re getting closer and closer.”