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Toronto Raptors ยท Injury Report
Kawhi Leonard Out Weeks With Knee Swelling, and the Raptors' Comeback Story Pauses Again
The reunion is on hold. Kawhi Leonard is expected to miss a period of weeks with swelling in his left knee, Shams Charania reported Tuesday. The MRI on the knee showed no structural damage, and the Raptors will use the shorter term to ramp him back up after the stoppages that dotted his offseason.
It is the best version of bad news. Weeks is not months, and a clean MRI is not a surgical table. But two games into the most anticipated Raptors season in years, their biggest name is back in street clothes, and Toronto is back to the question it thought it had answered: how much Kawhi is too much to ask for?
Two games, then the scratch
Leonard arrived from the Los Angeles Clippers in a blockbuster offseason trade, seven years after he carried Toronto to its only championship. The stoppages started early. He sat out preseason games on October 4 and October 10, then suited up for the first two games of the regular season, a 135-92 rout of Chicago and a 112-102 win at Washington.
The reunion is on hold, but the gear is not: Kawhi Leonard's Raptors jerseys, tees and hoodies are up at Fanatics.
The offense was rusty. Leonard averaged 19.5 points on 32.4 percent shooting and 28.6 percent from three. The rest of his game was not rusty at all. He added 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals a night, and the Raptors carried the league's second-best defense through the first week.
Then came Sunday. Leonard was ruled out an hour before tipoff in Minnesota with the left knee swelling, head coach Darko Rajakovic said testing on Monday would set the timeline, and the Raptors lost 117-94 without him. Tuesday's report is that timeline: a period of weeks.
One thing worth separating. The swelling is in Leonard's left knee. The injuries that have defined his career, the ACL tear in 2021 and the meniscus tear in 2023, were to his right knee. Last season in Los Angeles was his healthiest in years, 65 games and a second-team All-NBA nod, which is exactly why Toronto made the trade.
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"You can't rush greatness"
Leonard saw this coming, in his own way. After the opener he told reporters to stay patient while the medical staff managed his ramp-up, via Josh Lewenberg.
"You can't rush greatness. You know, whenever the medical staff thinks I could push forward and I'm feeling great, whatever numbers we're looking at, or they're looking at, then that's when that time will come. I was just happy to be out there and do the best I can with my minutes."
That patience is now the plan for the whole franchise. The Raptors are 2-1, the roster around Leonard is deep and the season is long. What Toronto cannot do is turn weeks into months by hurrying a 35-year-old knee in October.
The Kawhi Situation, by the Numbers
- Games played this season: 2, averaging 19.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals
- His shooting so far: 32.4% from the field and 28.6% from three
- The diagnosis: swelling in the left knee, with an MRI showing no structural damage
- The timeline: out a period of weeks while Toronto ramps him back up
- Sunday without him: a 117-94 loss in Minnesota, with Ja'Kobe Walter starting and scoring 22
- Next up: the Raptors host Orlando on Wednesday night
Who steps up, and the fantasy fallout
Start with Ja'Kobe Walter. He took Leonard's spot in the starting lineup Sunday and scored 22 points in 31 minutes against the Timberwolves. The minutes are his for as long as Leonard sits, and in fantasy he is the pickup of the week.
Behind him, the load spreads the way it did during Toronto's 2-0 start. Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett take more of the offense, Immanuel Quickley runs more of the show, and rookie Collin Murray-Boyles gets a longer look off the bench. If you roster Leonard, this is the familiar drill: stash him, stream Walter and do not panic-sell a player whose MRI just came back clean.
The Raptors host Orlando on Wednesday. The comeback story resumes whenever the swelling says so.
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