Ex-Raptors coach Nick Nurse reveals truth behind Kawhi Leonard’s 2019 championship run

Kawhi Leonard is one of those player’s whose potential has been squandered due to his recurrent injuries. The Clippers superstar once missed out on an entire NBA season some years ago, but we don’t have to travel so far back to recall him missing out on crucial action. Just this past campaign he had health issues during the playoffs, as his squad fell to the Phoenix Suns in the first round.

Back when he was traded to the Raptors for the 2018/19 season, the club took many precautions concerning his recoveries. Nick Nurse, who was Toronto’s head coach that tournament, recently went on Patrick Beverley’s podcast and revealed some hidden truths behind Kawhi’s health.

“I don’t think anybody knew how it was gonna work,” the current Sixers trainer said on the show. “I think he hadn’t played in like 12 or 14 months. So I don’t think anybody knew health-wise where he was going to be. We kinda went into it with a slow build. We were not gonna play him in back-to-backs and things like that.”

Nurse also reminisced on many controversial plays involving the current Los Angeles foward:

Did Kawhi travel on that play?

Nick Nurse discusses with @rone and @patbev21 on the latest @PatBevPod pic.twitter.com/LQhKPgtsSz

— Barstool Philly (@BarstoolPhilly) September 7, 2023

The former Raptors coach remembered that his star player was relatively in good shape, but didn’t want to play him as much as the squad was already playing well without him.

“He was pretty healthy, but the team was playing so well we were able to kinda continue to get him rest throughout the season,” he said. “I think we played 22 games without him, so he played 60 that year… When he wasn’t playing early on, people were like, ‘What’s going on?’ But the team started playing so well that we just kinda played.”

Even though they went to conquer the NBA title that campaign, it wasn’t easy dealing with leaving the veteran star out of the starting lineup. For this reason, Leonard eventually decided to join the Clippers after only a single season in Toronto.

LA coach Tyronn Lue recently assured that both Kawhi and Paul George should be ready and healthy for training camp next month

Unfortunately for the Los Angeles franchise, they’ve continually witnessed their star players suffer injuries throughout the past seasons. A couple of weeks ago, Clippers coach Ty Lue guaranteed that both Kawhi and Paul George will be ready to compete at the start of the upcoming campaign.

“They’re both on track to be 100% by the time training camp starts, and that’s what we need,” the trainer expressed. “You know, our best players will be healthy, and we’ve just been in an unfortunate situation where our two best players [haven’t had] a full season together the last three years and that’s been tough on us …”

Take a look at how well Leonard performed last season before falling to injury at the start of the playoffs:

“We have to, like I say, start respecting the regular season and giving our fans what they want to see and playing hard every single night, putting our best product on the floor,” Lue assured.

Last tournament, the Clippers went 44-38 and finished fifth in the Western Conference. Even though they won Game 1 of the first-round series against the Suns, Leonard missed the last three contests which saw the LA team eventually lose to Phoenix.