Kawhi Leonard Injury Update: Key San Antonio Spurs Player Might Return Tuesday
Several league sources claim that San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard is likely to make his season debut on Tuesday.
The report came through unnamed league sources who told ESPN that while the team has yet to finalize any decision about Leonard's return, Tuesday's game against the Dallas Mavericks was the initial target for his 2017-18 NBA season debut.
Before the latest report came out, there were rumors that Leonard was supposed to play against the Phoenix Suns last Saturday, which eventually did not happen. Despite his absence, the Spurs won the said match, 104-101, their fourth game in a winning streak.
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A quadriceps tendinopathy injury has kept Leonard off the court since his last game during the NBA 2016-17 conference finals against the Golden State Warriors.
The Spurs, as well as Leonard, have been avoiding giving a timeframe for the player's return.
In an interview before their Dec. 8 game against the Celtics, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich reiterated that he did not want to worry much about when Leonard was coming back to play and was instead focused on working with the players that he has.
"Whoever is not there is not there. We don't worry about him [Leonard] or think about it too much. ... In our case, when he gets there, he gets there. In the meantime, a lot of the guys are getting time. We're playing a lot of different people, a lot of different combinations. Some nights it doesn't work out really well. Other nights, it looks really good. But I think down the stretch it will help us," Popovich said.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Leonard told the press that he has been doing well in terms of recovering from the injury but still refused to give a definite timeline for his return. Leonard said he was "feeling pretty healthy" and his rehabilitation process already allowed him to join five-on-five drills.
The 2016-17 NBA season can still be counted as a generally good time for Leonard -- without his devastating injury in the latter part -- as he was nominated for the Most Valuable Player award that was later won by Oklahoma City Thunders' Russell Westbrook.
