Pop doesn’t rule out early November return for Kawhi Leonard

The Spurs have a six-game home stand to start the month.

We are now at a point where Gregg Popovich not saying something is actual news. In this case, Pop did not rule out the possibility of Kawhi Leonard returning to the court during the Spurs’ upcoming six-game home stand that begins on Nov. 2 against the Golden State Warriors and ends on Nov. 11 against the Chicago Bulls. Per San Antonio Express New’s Tom Osborn:

“Sure, anything is possible,” Popovich said after shootaround Wednesday morning. “But I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about when somebody is going to come back. Because they are going to come back when they are ready, when the docs say they are ready. So when that happens, that happens.”

Despite denying much knowledge of the situation, this is a step up from Pop’s previous stance that there was no timeline for Leonard’s return. The fact that he squeezes the word “possible” in there definitely means something coming from him.

Leonard has been dealing with tendinopathy in his right quad, which has kept him out through the entire preseason and all three of the Spurs regular season games so far. He did not travel with the team on their four-game road trip, which kicks off tonight against the Miami Heat.

In other injury related news, there is no timeline for Joffrey Lauvergne to return after he suffered a sprained ankle in Monday’s win over the Toronto Raptors. Also, as previously reported, Tony Parker has been assigned to the Austin Spurs for training camp: a sign that he is completely healed and now just needs to get in shape.

Source: Pounding The Rock