Tony Parker returned to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night after missing the start of the season with a torn quad he suffered near the end of last year—and he came bearing more than the six points and four assists he dropped in the team’s victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
To hear the 35-year-old point guard tell it, we can expect Kawhi Leonard back with the Spurs in a couple of weeks, per the San Antonio Express-News‘ Tom Orsborn:
“He’s close, but it’s still going to be a process,” Parker said of Leonard, who has been sidelined since just before the start of preseason with right quadriceps tendinopathy. “You know the Spurs, they are going to take no risks. It’s going to be…a couple of weeks, three weeks, they are not going to take any risks, but he is looking good so far.”
Parker, who will play Monday night for the first time since undergoing surgery in May to repair his torn left quadriceps tendon, said he has gone through informal workouts with Leonard.
“He was looking good the last two or three practices he had with me,” Parker said of Leonard.”
Parker said the workouts he had with Leonard included some of the “old, old guys” like Spurs great Tim Duncan and retired Spurs sharpshooter Matt Bonner.
Parker isn’t a doctor, but he’s uniquely qualified to comment on Leonard’s situation. He’s not only been behind the scenes rehabbing himself, but both players are working their way back from quad injuries.
Of course, the Spurs have been moving the goal posts on Leonard’s status without actually moving anything at all. Touting his progress without a timeline for his return has been the party line. And for every optimistic take that gets disseminated to the masses, at least one pessimistic slant is present and accounted for, like so:
https://twitter.com/danfavale/status/933539713675296768
The Spurs have a top-five defense and top-seven net rating without Leonard, because they’re the Spurs. But their offense has been far from spectacular. They need him to maximize their spacey potential on both ends of the floor. And while they have no incentive, or past precedent, to rush him back, the sooner he returns, the better off they’ll be—a scary thought when you think about where they are now, at 13-7.
