What Kawhi Leonard has been doing since LA Clippers exit is very encouraging for the 2025-26 NBA season

2025 offseason will be critical to Kawhi Leonard

Leonard has not enjoyed a full, healthy postseason since 2020. Instead, he has spent his summers getting back in shape, under the knife, or simply resting.

This summer, so far, he’s lived in the gym, adding to and honing his game for the first time in half a decade.

“Kawhi Leonard had trained all the way through the end of the NBA Finals to get his body reactivated to playing that deep in the playoffs,” said ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk.

“And this is going to be the first offseason in a long time where he can just focus on improving his game and working out, not rehabbing. That is very important to me.

“I think last year, we saw in the playoffs, he looked very good in the beginning. It was going to be hard for him to maintain that level coming off the injury he was, but now looking forward, they feel that he can continue training the way he was before.”

With their core coming back and the addition of Brook Lopez, a champion center, the Clippers should be even more dangerous, especially with the benefit of a healthy Leonard, provided they treat him right this summer.

“And I like the pieces they put around him,” Youngmisuk continued. “They arguably have perhaps maybe one of the best front lines in the league. Remember, this is a team that took Denver to seven games. Now you add Brook Lopez.”

LA Clippers need to learn their lesson from last season

A full offseason of Leonard adding strength and skills doesn’t matter too much if he’s sidelined for a significant time after the All-Star break.

Last year, largely due to concern about his longevity, the Clippers did not start Leonard’s season until January. This year, they need to carry themselves with the same caution.

The West is even more loaded this upcoming season than it was last year, but Lopez, Harden, Powell, and Zubac should be enough to avoid the play-in tournament, and adding Leonard into the fold later in the season, allowing him to be healthy for the entire postseason, is a viable strategy.

The Clippers made one major addition, didn’t see a massive loss, and managed to keep their elite coaching staff in place thus far.

Leonard has long dealt with a degenerative muscle condition, so working him for eight or nine months is simply not sustainable, but his ability to stay healthy through seven playoff games and keep training after being eliminated should be a sign of good things to come.