It looked as though everything was going smoothly for Kawhi Leonard and Team USA in their bid to bag home the gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, last week, both Team USA and the Los Angeles Clippers deemed that it was in Leonard's best interest for him not to suit up for the upcoming Olympic games to mitigate the risk of injury after a tumultuous past four years.

But now, it seems as though Team USA was alone in making the call to hold Leonard out, with president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank expressing his disappointment over how things have gone down.

While it would have been great to see Kawhi Leonard show that he's healthy in the grandest international basketball stage, ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith is befuddled as to why Lawrence Frank would feel this way. The Clippers, after all, should know just how important keeping Leonard healthy is given how crucial he is to the team's chances of making any noise in the Western Conference, especially in the aftermath of Paul George's departure.

“Respectfully Lawrence Frank, come on! How could anyone who roots for the @LAClippers possibly feel this way, knowing this man is perennially unhealthy, having missed 60% of the playoffs as a Clipper,” Smith wrote on his official Twitter (X) account.

“His greatness is not a question. His health is always a question. So how can any member of the Clippers be disappointed, knowing how much he’s needed. Come on!”

Lawrence Frank said that it was “USAB's call” and that he was “quite frankly” (no pun intended) “very disappointed with the decision”. Moreover, the Clippers president clarified that “Leonard wanted to play” and that the Clippers “wanted him to play”. He then revealed that he talked to the Team USA committee and told them that he wishes that they would have given Leonard “more time” to ramp up.

Indeed, Stephen A. Smith is justified in feeling this sort of confusion. Clippers fans may be disappointed that they won't get to see Kawhi Leonard suit up for Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but that disappointment pales in comparison to all the frustrations that have been building up in a fanbase that knows that the team they're rooting for has the talent to compete for a championship but simply does not have the health to do so.

But Lawrence Frank simply may be echoing Leonard and his camp's sentiment regarding the whole withdrawal from Team USA. It's his job as the Clippers executive to have his best player's back, and for that, Frank did a good job.

Have the Clippers not learned?

It definitely is a bit confusing to see the Clippers brass express their disappointment publicly regarding Kawhi Leonard's exclusion from Team USA's final Olympic roster. At this point, Leonard simply may never get through another season unscathed again, especially now that he's 33 years of age. He seems to be suffering from a degenerative knee issue, as evidenced by the fact that he has been dealing with knee problems ever since he tore his ACL in the 2021 NBA playoffs.

Just this season, it seemed like Leonard was turning around the narrative of his career. The NBA had instituted a 65-game minimum to be eligible for postseason awards, and Leonard proceeded to play in 68 games for the Clippers. In fact, he played like an MVP candidate during the Clippers' 26-5 midseason stretch. Leonard, however, suffered some knee soreness at the end of March.

That knee soreness problem cast a dark cloud over the final month of the Clippers' season. Will he or won't he be back was the main question plaguing the team. In the end, he did come back for two games in the first round of the playoffs, but it was evident that he was nowhere near 100 percent.

There, indeed, seems to be a correlation between the number of games Leonard plays and the well-being of his knee. The only season in which he has stayed fully healthy from beginning to end for the Clippers was the 2019-20 campaign — a season that had a four-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Leonard being healthy now isn't too far-fetched; he last played for the Clippers on April 26 — nearly three months ago. But the Clippers have to know that putting more wear-and-tear on the 33-year-old forward's body isn't the best idea, especially when the team is going through a bit of a transition phase with George departing for the Philadelphia 76ers. Team USA will be in a good enough position anyway regardless of whether or not Leonard is on the roster.