NBA Rumors: San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard has been ruled out for the team’s season opener, and has been given no timetable to return
The San Antonio Spurs wil have to begin the 2017-18 NBA regular season without Kawhi Leonard, who will remain out with a quad issue.
Leonard is coming off the best season of his career in which he averaged 25.5 points, 3.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game. He also finished the 2016-17 NBA campaign with a career-high 27.6 PER.
According to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News, Leonard is expected to miss the regular season opener, and potentially more.
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"[via SAEN]All-Star small forward Kawhi Leonard is not expected to play in Wednesday’s season opener against Minnesota at the AT&T Center, coach Gregg Popovich said Friday.“He won’t be available,” Popovich said before the Spurs’ preseason finale against Houston.Popovich said there remains no timetable for Leonard’s return, even beyond Wednesday’s opener.“I don’t gauge it,” Popovich said. “He’s still rehabbing and when he’s ready, he’ll be ready. I try not to qualify it.”"
Leonard has been battling tendinopathy in his left quadriceps. He has missed the team’s training camp and the entire preseason with this injury. Despite not being available for training camp or the team’s preseason, it was widely expected that Leonard would be back for the regular season. Clearly, that’s not happening. Which bring at least some level of concern for the young superstar.
Now the question shifts to when he’ll be ready. As Gregg Popovich likes to keep it, he was pretty mum on any potential timetable or target date. Nevertheless, starting the season without Leonard is not going to be an easy task for the Spurs or Pop.
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It’s not time to panic yet, but this is definitely a situation that needs to be monitored. Especially for a Spurs team that is in the middle of an extremely competitive Western Conference.