After Another Playoff Heartbreak, Can a Healthy Kawhi Leonard Lead the Clippers to a Title Run?

After the Game 7 loss to the Nuggets, Leonard was asked a series of questions about how the season ended. Throughout many of his interviews, viewers should have a clear idea of his demeanor. The words that come to mind is “honest and straight to the point”. When asked about the outcome of the game: “Could’ve given a better effort for sure. I don’t think this team is 30 points better than us. You got to give them credit, they came out and ran hard in transition, got easy points and made shots.”

When asked about the importance of him finishing a season healthy: “To be able to start training camp and the start of the season will be great. Right now, the loss is still on my mind. I am happy that I’m healthy coming out of the game. I wish we could’ve had a better outcome.” Recently, Leonard has echoed how important it was to him to finish a full year without injuries. From 2017, it is well documented how many lower leg extremity injuries he has gone through. 

Right quadriceps tendinopathy, torn ACL, torn meniscus, and knee inflammation due to workload in the knee. The multiple surgeries he has had one would think Leonard would decline drastically. Surprising though it has been the opposite he has maintained superstar production. Since 2017, he has had five All-star appearances, four All NBA Teams, and three All Defensive teams with a championship in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors. 

Coming into the 2025-26 season, Leonard will be 34 years old. He is right at the end of his prime and has been able to complete a full season. Towards the end of the season, he finished as a top 5-10 player that comes with championship expectations.

Where are the Clippers at with meeting those expectations? In the aftermath of the season, President of Basketball Operations for the Clippers Lawrence Frank held a virtual exit interview. Joey Linn Clippers beat writer had brought up the subject to Frank of them being an early first round exit with a full healthy roster, and was Leonard and James Harden the answer for championship hopes?

Frank seemed to have a much more positive response when asked the question than Leonard did after the Game 7 loss. He seemed to focus more on how competitive the series was against the Nuggets. Instead of looking at the brutal harsh truth, that the Clippers for a third straight year lost in the first round. He also highlighted like many other people that there is much to be happy about which was a 50-win season with the departures of All-Star Paul George and Russell Westbrook. When Leonard was asked about the significance of a 50-win season, “I don’t know I guess we did a good job because many folks counted us out, but that’s never the goal.” 

The Clippers finished 13-2 with a nine-game winning streak to finish the regular season. The reactions from Frank and Leonard seemed to be opposites. This offseason, that is a conversation to be had with Leonard and the organization. Is there still belief that they can compete for an NBA championship? In his 13-year career, when he completes an actual playoff run, he has only been eliminated from the first round one time. That speaks volumes of where his standards lie at when it comes to playoff basketball. He is top three in winning percentage in NBA history. Leonard is a two-time NBA champion he knows what it looks like to win at the highest level.

Unfortunately, the Clippers do not have that luxury, the sense of urgency doesn’t seem to be the same when they brought Leonard and George to the team back in 2019. The positive thing to take from this that he seems to be healthy and will be able to go into a full training camp. However, in a loaded Western Conference the Clippers showed they still have a way to go from reaching championship aspirations.

The question is, how does Leonard feel about that?