Kawhi Leonard travels with Clippers, inching closer towards return

The forward took a big step towards returning to game action in the near future.

(Photo credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard will be traveling on the team’s upcoming three-game road trip to Dallas and Memphis, coach Tyronn Lue told reporters after practice Wednesday. But Leonard will not play on the trip.

“He’s going to travel, yes,” Lue said. “He will not play on this trip.”

Leonard, who had yet to travel with the team this season, was reassessed Tuesday to determine how much progress the forward had made in his recovery from right knee injury management that had forced the 33-year-old to miss the team’s first 27 games.

A big hurdle for Leonard in his pursuit to “check all the boxes”, as Lue and the Clippers have put it throughout the season, was for the star to participate in five-on-five full-contact practice with the team. That hurdle was cleared Wednesday.

“He practiced today, five-on-five with contact,” Lue told reporters. “Good seeing him out there doing that. Came out good, and so, just continuing the process and making sure we’re checking every box before he returns to play.”

Leonard is traveling with the team on this trip to, in part, make sure the forward does not “have any swelling” or “any setbacks” as he begins the full-contact practice phase of his rehabilitation.

“Just progressing, keep checking the boxes, making sure when he gets done with the five-on-five with the contact, making sure he doesn’t have any swelling, making sure he doesn’t have any setbacks,” Lue said when asked about what he wants to see from this trip Leonard is taking with the team. “He can get a lot of rehab and stuff done on the road with our team. That’s why he’s making the trip.”