San Antonio Spurs are still playing without their biggest star, forward Kawhi Leonard, who is dealing with right quad tendinopathy injury. Now it looks like they will have to finish the season without their best player, according to the team’s head coach Gregg Popovich.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Popovich said that he would be “surprised” if Leonard was to return to court in this season.
“We only have X number of games left in the season, and he’s still not ready to go,” – said Popovich. “If by some chance he is, it’s gonna be pretty late into the season, and it’s going to be a pretty tough decision — how late to bring somebody back. So that’s why I’m just trying to be honest and logical. I’ll be surprised if he gets back this year.“
After suffering an injury in the NBA Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors in May 2017, Leonard missed the first 27 games of the 2017-18 season. He came back briefly in December and played nine games, before being ruled out indefinitely on January 13.
According to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, Leonard recently went to New York and asked for a second opinion about his injury. The second opinion has been the same as the one in San Antonio; he is medically cleared to return. The sources say that the franchise has decided to let the player decide when he is ready to play again and that Leonard chose not to return to the active roster at the moment.
