Kawhi Leonard and full US team should be ready for Olympic training camp, says Steve Kerr

Team USA basketball coach Steve Kerr says all 12 Team USA stars should be ready for the start of Olympic training camp next week in Las Vegas — and that includes Kawhi Leonard.

“We expect everyone to be ready to go,” Kerr said in a conference call with reporters, eight days before the American men reported to camp.

Kerr’s team enters the 2024 Games as four-time defending Olympic champions, and the roster he, general manager Grant Hill and GM Sean Ford have assembled is loaded with star power that rivals the 1992 Dream Team. But three of those stars — Leonard, Tyrese Haliburton and Joel Embiid — were hampered by injuries either late in the regular season or during the playoffs or both.

Neither Leonard nor Haliburton were able to complete their respective teams’ playoff runs, with Leonard out with right knee inflammation and Haliburton suffering from a strained left hamstring.

There was never any major doubt that Haliburton would still be out come training camp (practice begins July 6). Haliburton said Thursday he was worried when he was injured, but the Indiana Pacers training staff was always confident he would be ready for the Olympics.

However, Leonard’s status was in question, given that he sat out two games in the LA Clippers’ first-round loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

Kerr said that while he wouldn’t rule out last-minute surprises, the U.S. staff has been in constant contact with Leonard and they believe he will be on the field with the Americans next week. Leonard is expected to train on Friday with the U.S. staff watching, but early indications are that he is healthy and will be ready next week. Hill has been in contact with many players so they can make contingency plans in case one or more of the initial 12 players aren’t ready.

“I would leave it all as a possibility depending on injuries, preparation, whatever, but at this point we expect all 12 guys to be good to go.”

Leonard missed the final eight games of the regular season with the same injury. There is no new structural damage to Leonard’s knee, league sources said, but inflammation from multiple surgeries he has undergone has bothered him for weeks. He played in just two playoff games last year due to a torn meniscus and missed the entire 2021-22 season after tearing his ACL during the 2021 playoffs.

Haliburton suffered a strained left hamstring in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals and missed the remainder of the series. He suffered a similar injury to the same leg in January and missed 10 games. He averaged 18.7 points and 8.2 assists in the playoffs.

Embiid, meanwhile, suffered a serious left leg injury, which was surgically repaired, early in the series between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks, collapsing on the court and limping to the locker room. Embiid returned for the second half and finished with 29 points. He played the entire series, scoring 50 points in Game 3 and 39 in Game 6, but appeared to struggle to score at times throughout the series.

Assuming all players are healthy and accounted for, Kerr and his star-studded staff (Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue, Mark Few) must determine who will start, who will be first off the bench and who will have to watch . Kerr predicted that all of his players on the American roster would eventually make the Hall of Fame.

The team includes LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo, Jrue Holiday, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, and three players mentioned above. James and Durant have multiple gold medals, while Tatum, Booker, Adebayo, Holiday, and Davis all have one.

“Everybody’s excited about what’s coming,” Kerr said. “Our roster is obviously full of stars and guys who have accomplished a lot, and what I love about those guys is they want to accomplish even more.”

The United States will face Canada in a friendly on July 10 in Las Vegas, then travel to Abu Dhabi and London for four more exhibition games before arriving in France for the start of the Olympics. The Americans’ first Olympic game will be on July 28 in Lille, France, against Nikola Jokić and Serbia.

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(Photo: Tim Heitman/NBAE via Getty Images)