‘Kawhi Leonard, The Sequel’ has been as advertised, if not as hoped for the Toronto Raptors.

At least so far.

The seven-time all-NBA selection has played just two games in his return to his championship-stomping grounds in Toronto after a seven-year sojourn in Los Angeles.

It will be a little while longer before Leonard plays his third, although the good news is that there has been no setback to his latest setback.

In a media release on Tuesday, the Raptors said that Leonard “has successfully completed treatment to address left knee swelling. He will now begin the return-to-play process in Toronto, and his progress will be updated in one week.”

Given that Leonard was still ramping up his minutes before he began experiencing problems with his knee, it seems reasonable that his next phase will be reconditioning, which could have him back and ready to play the week of Nov. 16, after missing 10 games.

Leonard has been out since Oct. 25 and missed five games to date for the 4-3 Raptors, who play the Nuggets here on Wednesday.

Leonard’s start to his second tour with the Raptors was already a little bit tentative. 

He didn’t participate in live scrimmages during training camp as the team cited the need to ramp him up slowly. Leonard hadn’t been able to play five-on-five over the summer while the trade that brought him to the Raptors was in limbo due to the uncertainty around the NBA’s investigation into salary cap circumvention allegations related to Leonard during his time with the Los Angeles Clippers. 

He sat out the Raptors’ first two exhibition games, played the next two and sat out the last, accumulating 39.5 minutes. He played 24 minutes in the Raptors’ opening-night win over the Chicago Bulls and 28 minutes in their win over the Washington Wizards on Oct. 23. He practised the following day and went through his pre-game warm-up in Minnesota on Oct. 25 before he noticed swelling in his left knee and sat out. 

He didn’t look like he was in peak condition when he did play, struggling at times to finish around the rim and through contact. He has averaged 19.5 points on just 32.4 per cent shooting across the two games he’s played so far, with 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals.

According to league sources, Leonard did not suffer an injury to his knee but was suffering from irritation due to long-term wear and tear. Medical imaging showed no structural damage. 

Leonard has had multiple surgeries on his right knee but hasn’t had issues with his left knee since the 2018-19 season. It was during that season that the Raptors crafted a program that became known as ‘load management,’ which enabled Leonard to play 60 games during the regular season and before leading the NBA in post-season minutes. Toronto won the championship and Leonard was recognized as Finals MVP just one year after he played just nine games for the San Antonio Spurs due to problems with his quadriceps tendon in his left knee. 

After his lone season with the Raptors, he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency. The NBA investigation into allegations of salary cap circumvention determined that Leonard received millions of dollars of improper benefits from the Clippers during his seven seasons there. 

For the past decade, injuries have been as much a part of Leonard’s story as his trophy case, which features two Defensive Player of the Year awards, two Finals MVP trophies and 15 seasons as one of the NBA’s best two-way players.

Since the 2017-18 season, Leonard has missed 44 per cent of his team’s games.

Still, the Raptors were confident that even at age 35 Leonard could keep delivering elite-level performance, buoyed by him posting one of the best seasons of his career last year with the Clippers: 27.9 points per game and 1.9 steals on 62.9 per cent True Shooting over 65 games. On the whole, it represents one of the best statistical seasons by a player 34 or older in NBA history.

The Raptors eventually traded Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks (2031 and 2033), a first-round pick swap in 2027 and two future second-round picks for Leonard and then promptly signed him to a two-year, $115 million contract extension that is guaranteed through the 2028-29 season. He’s playing on the last year of his current contract, earning $50.3 million. He has a player option on the final year of his extension, which covers him through his age 37 season.

The possibility of Leonard closing out his Hall-of-Fame career with the Raptors was also a factor in his decision to come back to Toronto.

Leonard hasn’t been around the team since his most recent knee issues surfaced, the Raptors saying only that he has been getting rest and treatment “outside of Toronto.” But according to Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, Leonard’s presence has been felt.

“It’s great to get every win for him,” Rajakovic said in Los Angeles Monday night after the Raptors won against the Clippers in their first meeting since the trade. “He loves his team; he loves his teammates. He loves to be around them and it means a lot to him that he sees the guys do well.”

The Raptors are 2-3 without Leonard in the lineup.

“We feel (his absence) everywhere. We’re talking about Kawhi Leonard. We feel it defensively, offensively, the shot creation, the calmness he brings to the team on the court, a lot of stuff,” said Rajakovic.

“Obviously he’s just starting the season with us. There’s going to be a period of him getting adjusted to the team and his teammates to him as well, but he’s a high-level player who brings a lot of different stuff.”

Including injury risk and uncertainty.