PLAYA VISTA — There was a commercial in 2019 for that year’s installment of the “Terminator” franchise that featured Kawhi Leonard and Paul George – who’d recently become Clippers – alongside movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton.

In it, Schwarzenegger welcomes Leonard to L.A.: “It’s good to see another Terminator.”

Leonard: “I don’t know why they call me that.”

“Because,” Schwarzenegger explains, “you have zero emotions. You feel no pain.”

Oh, Hollywood make believe.

Terminator meets Terminator. In honor of the start of the @NBA, watch Arnold @Schwarzenegger, @KawhiLeonard, Paul George (@yg_trece) and Linda Hamilton team up in this @ESPN spot. #TerminatorDarkFate pic.twitter.com/9zPV4dCeeV

— Terminator: Dark Fate (@Terminator) October 22, 2019

Leonard is, in fact, human.

Can confirm: His ligaments are not constructed with polymimetic alloy, allowing him to automatically re-form and heal without time and rehabilitation. And that slow, arduous recovery process, as Lawrence Frank noted during his postseason debrief with reporters Wednesday, is a challenging one, for anyone.

Although, to hear the Clippers’ president of basketball operations tell it, Leonard has gone about handling it with near superhuman strength.

“The emotional toll of not playing on players and having been around other players that have missed a year, it’s a lot,” Frank said. “And the fact that he’s been able to stay so ultra-locked into his rehab just speaks so such of the discipline you see when he’s on the court. You see that carried over into his rehab. That’s a challenge. That’s not easy.”

Frank wasn’t ready Wednesday to ink Leonard’s name into the 2022-23 opening night lineup, resisting setting a timetable as the Clippers have since his injury June 14 during the second round of last season’s playoffs.

Frank was, however, eager to commend Leonard on his behind-the-scenes work to get back, describing the Clippers’ star as keeping an arrive-early, stay-late schedule: “The best players in my experiences always unite and inspire by what they do, not by what they said.”

“He’s a maniacal worker,” Frank continued. “He puts a ton of time, effort and focus into his daily rehab. So he continues to make progress. We’re encouraged by the progress that he’s making.”

But: “The stages of his rehab, I kind of leave that up to the medical professionals.”

In the meantime, Frank said it was helpful to have one of the top basketball professionals in the field in-house. That was true even if Leonard – the two-time NBA Finals MVP who averaged 30.4 points on 57.3% shooting, to go with 7.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.1 steals through 11 playoff games last year before he got hurt – couldn’t be out there surgically picking apart opponents himself.

“He has such a high IQ,” said Frank, noting that Leonard, despite his reputation as a quiet guy, regularly shared insight with colleagues. “If you just observed during the games, you’ll see him be in coaches’ meetings. (He) will share what he sees with the players, what he says to them and what he texts to them. Things that he shares with me.”

And Leonard’s is an impressive operating system, as Frank described it: “He’s got a great, great, great brain and great, great mind for the game.”

And the Clippers have great, great hope that Leonard will – whenever he’s ready – shift back into shape as one of the NBA’s elite on-court weapons. Frank said there’s a cautious optimism rooted in data and science, and the realization that “literally, everyone is different when they come back.”

“The trap sometimes is the expectation – whether it’s Kawhi or anyone else,” Frank said of his team’s top player, who re-signed on a four-year, $176 million contract prior to this just-completed season, which ended with a pair play-in losses last week.

“To me, it’s just all a part of the journey. Over time there’s been enough players with ACLs, I’ve coached guys with ACLs, and the great thing about it, they can come back and be 100% – and in some cases be better than ever.

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“Because … it’s 84 less treads on the tire that are worn down,” Frank added, counting the games Leonard missed this season. “You’re able to strengthen other muscles in your body. Typically for an NBA player, when you go through a grueling 82-game season, you typically take time off and then use the remaining part of the offseason.”

“So I guess expectation is: I just trust the process of seeing him work every day and how hard he works. Regardless of if he’s like this right off the bat or it takes a little bit of time, I have great faith that he’ll be back and better than ever.”

Leonard is no Terminator, but … he’ll be back.