The San Antonio Spurs held a players-only meeting to push former NBA Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard to return to the lineup from his lingering quadriceps injury, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The meeting was reported by both Wojnarowski and The San Antonio Express-News’ Jabari Young. According to Woj, Tony Parker led the meeting with several Spurs voicing “frustration and confusion” over Leonard’s injury. However, some teammates encouraged Leonard to sit out until he felt 100 percent ready to return, according to Young.
Leonard has only played in nine games this year, and the Spurs are on the tail end of one of their worst seasons in the Gregg Popovich era.
Leonard told the Spurs his stance that he would return when he felt healthy hasn’t changed, according to Young. Nevertheless, his absence has caused confusion among the players and coaches. The Spurs want their best player back on the floor if he’s healthy and able to play, but they don’t want to bank on him returning for the playoffs, either.
Leonard’s injury was first revealed Sept. 30 when the Spurs announced he’s miss the majority of the preseason. Two weeks later, they pushed his return back, saying he’d miss the regular-season opener with no timetable for him to be back on the floor.
Leonard eventually made his return Dec. 12 and he played in spurts. He didn’t appear in the second of any back-to-backs nor any games that were clustered together on the schedule. He played in nine games and averaged 16 points on non-Kawhi Leonard shooting percentages.
After those games, he decided it was best to step away from the team to focus on his rehab. Eventually, he left San Antonio to go to New York to consult an independent group of doctors about his injury.
But Leonard returned to San Antonio Feb. 27 and has been working out there ever since. He has even impressed the coaches in three-on-three and four-on-four workouts, according to Wojnarowski. There was a thought he might return in mid-March. That never happened.
“He is not coming back,” Manu Ginobili said Wednesday, via ESPN’s Mike C. Wright. “For me, he’s not coming back because it’s not helping [to think Leonard is returning]. We fell for it a week ago again. I guess you guys made us fall for it. But we have to think that he’s not coming back, that we are who we are, and that we got to fight without him. That shouldn’t be changing, at least until he is ready for the jump ball.”
Leonard at his best is arguably the best two-way player in the NBA. Remember: He was the difference in last year’s Western Conference Finals. The Spurs were up by 25 when he was playing. After he went down with an injury, they lost by two, then never stood a chance in any subsequent games.
Hall of Fame big man and former Spurs star David Robinson also agrees. In an interview with SB Nation’s Tyler Tynes, he admitted San Antonio is badly missing its star player.
“He makes a huge difference,” Robinson said. “We have to get Kawhi back on the floor. We gotta get more leadership. That’s the most clear challenge with our team right now.”
The Spurs are on pace to finish with their worst record since the 1988-89 season where they finished 21-61. San Antonio is currently 42-30 standing at the West’s sixth seed. They are 2.5 games out of the No. 3 seed and three games ahead of the Nuggets at the ninth slot.
The Spurs would absolutely love to have its superstar back on the floor, but it’s unclear if he’ll return any time soon. The only thing that’s clear is this has been one of the weirdest stories out of San Antonio in a very long time. Hopefully a resolution presents itself for the playoffs.