{"id":931038,"date":"2026-10-13T04:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931038\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T04:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:02:09","slug":"kawhi-leonard-available-to-make-first-appearance-in-second-run-with-toronto-raptors-vs-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931038\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard available to make first appearance in second run with Toronto Raptors vs. Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kawhi Leonard<\/a> will be available to make his pre-season debut for the Toronto Raptors<\/a> on Tuesday against the New York Knicks<\/a>, head coach Darko Rajakovic told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

Leonard has been ramping up slowly through the preseason since the the Raptors officially acquired him from the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n

TSN\u2019s Josh Lewenberg reported earlier this month<\/a> that the Raptors have been playing it safe with Leonard in preparation for the season due to his age, extensive injury history and complicated summer that saw a trade from L.A. to Toronto sit in limbo for months.<\/p>\n

Leonard was on court again Monday in Toronto and told reporters after the team\u2019s session that he\u2019s feeling good as he ramps up toward his pre-season debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good. Being smart, taking it slow. Just getting familiar with everybody. Getting the names right with each coach, player development, learning the plays. Learning everything that [Rajakovic] has been doing the past three or four years,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Leonard is coming off one of his most successful seasons in the NBA from a statistical standpoint, as he averaged a career-high 27.9 points per game over 65 games last year with the Clippers. He was an All-Star, named second-team All-NBA and finished seventh in MVP voting.<\/p>\n

Leonard has two NBA titles in his decorated career, and two Finals MVP awards – the first in 2014 while a member of the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, and the second in 2019 when he led the Raptors to their first and only title over the Golden State Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Raptors have three preseason games remaining on the schedule before they play their season opener against the Chicago Bulls<\/a> on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard will be available to make his pre-season debut for the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[712,49,48,459,82,96661],"class_list":["post-931038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-28"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}