Last week San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich told reporters he’d be “surprised” if Kawhi Leonard returns to action this season after battling a quadriceps injury that has lingered all year long, but this week it’s a different story.
Leonard could be back by March, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Spurs’ All-Star forward returned to San Antonio from New York where he received consultation on his consultation injury, the report said.
Leonard isn’t expected to immediately start engaging in full 5-on-5 practices with his teammates, but the goal is to advance toward that level of engagement in the near future, league sources said.
(Note: This post was originally published in November and was updated with Leonard’s status.)
Popovich is an NBA lifer, but even he has never seen an injury like Leonard’s strained quad tendon. The star forward has missed all but nine games that San Antonio has played so far this season, and there’s still no timetable for his return.
“Never, never,” said Popovich, asked if this injury was similar to anything he’s seen before in a Nov. 23 ESPN story.
Popovich continued: “What's really strange is that [Tony Parker] has the same injury, but even worse. They had to go operate on his quad tendon and put it back together or whatever they did to it. So to have two guys, that's pretty incredible. I had never seen it before those guys.”
Parker rehabbed after the injury in last season’s Western Conference Semifinals and hadn’t played until Nov. 25, but has since returned and is averaging 8.5 points and about four assists per game. He’s been demoted to a bench role behind budding young guard Dejounte Murray, but the Spurs’ biggest issue isn’t at the point guard: It’s on the wings.
San Antonio has fallen to 35-24 this season, now tied with and in danger of falling behind the Minnesota Timberwolves for the fourth seed in the West. The Wolves are only two games ahead of the Thunder, who are only separated by 1.5 games from the ninth seed in the West. In short: The Spurs need Leonard back to be anything close to the team they were last year.
But in a recent ESPN story, the All-Star forward doesn’t appear to be in a rush to return to the court this season. He has been medically cleared to play for some time, but hasn’t convinced himself he’s ready to go yet. Popovich’s coaching will keep this team afloat, but without Leonard — who emerged onto the scene as the league’s premier two-way wing after winning NBA Finals MVP in 2014 — San Antonio’s fate this season appears bleak at best.
It sure isn’t a good sign that Leonard’s injury is so strange and has been talked about in these vague uncertainties.
