The San Antonio Spurs spent the first 27 games of the 2017-18 season with Kawhi Leonard, as the team’s star forward was sidelined with an injury to his right quadriceps. As it turns out, the injury hasn’t healed all the way, and the Spurs announced on Wednesday that Leonard will miss an indefinite amount of time as he “continues his rehabilitation process.”
Kawhi Leonard Update: pic.twitter.com/2jb5svTAR2
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) January 17, 2018
This is the latest in what has been a really weird season for Leonard, who came into the year viewed as one of the favorites to win the league MVP award following a breakout 2016-17 campaign. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich admitted that Leonard’s recovery from the injury, which he suffered before the season, was more difficult than he anticipated. Popovich even went as far as to say that this injury was straight up weird, comparing it to an ailment suffered by Tony Parker.
Leonard has appeared in nine games this season, averaging 16.2 points in 23.3 minutes per game. In addition to his quadriceps injury, Leonard suffered a partial tear in one of his shoulders upon his return to the floor. The Spurs can afford to be patient with Leonard as he works to get back to 100 percent, as the team is sitting in third place in the Western conference with a 29-16 record.
