Clippers to keep Kawhi (knee) out of camp practice

INGLEWOOD, California — Kawhi Leonard and this LA Clippers He has undergone a variety of treatments to control inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee since the end of last season, and although the swelling has gone down, the star forward will be held out of practice at training camp next week to get back to full strength.

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

“I think the timing will depend on how his knee responds at each stage,” Frank said. “Nobody has a crystal ball.”

Leonard and the Clippers are trying to get the knee back to full strength and avoid a situation like the first round of the playoffs against Dallas, when persistent inflammation returned and limited Leonard to two games during a six-game loss. Mavericks,

Clippers coach Ty Lue said there are no plans yet to include Leonard in any practice and that they will rely on guidance from the team’s medical staff. Frank said the plan is for Leonard to work on strength training for his knee before returning.

“We’re just going to focus on strengthening and loading,” Frank said. “I think we’ve learned some lessons. If you think about it, he desperately wanted to come back and play in the Dallas series, and within a game or a game and a half the swelling got to the point where it was unmanageable, so we didn’t want to put ourselves in that situation.”

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

The swelling has been described as stubborn. Leonard was able to get it down to a manageable state while attending USA Basketball’s training camp in July. USA Basketball opted to replace Leonard with the Celtics point guard Derrick White After the camp.

Frank said at the time that Leonard had no setbacks. When asked in July if Leonard had undergone any procedures or treatment on his right knee ahead of USA Basketball camp, Frank said he wouldn’t say much about it, other than to say Leonard had worked very hard to get into USA camp.

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

“I think the encouraging thing is that we’ve seen progress,” Frank said Tuesday. “It was a really difficult thing in terms of the inflammation. We’re looking for answers along the way, and over time we’ll continue to learn more about what works, what doesn’t. It’s really unfortunate that he had to deal with this, but I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”

Frank said Leonard is now “excited” about the swelling.

“We’ve really put the knee in a really good position,” Frank said. “(He) came back for Dallas (in the playoffs) and it’s been manageable since then. But we really, really spent the offseason trying to get it 100% and I think we’re getting closer.”