The San Antonio Spurs are finally showing signs of ageing. After all these years of being over 30. Father Time is finally beginning to catch up on the Spurs.
Tony Parker has missed games because of a hamstring injury but according to PoundingTheRock, Parker is close to returning.
Parker’s return from a strained left hamstring is close, per coach Gregg Popovich. “He worked out 3-on-3 (Friday) and came out of it pretty good but I wanted to him to work a little bit more, to make sure he doesn’t get in a game and get halfway through the game and feel it again,” Popovich said, referencing the two times Parker returned early only to re-aggravate the injury on Dec. 12 against the Lakers and then again on Christmas against the Thunder. “I want to really be sure about that so he’ll work out another once or twice before, Tuesday I think we play again? We’ll see how he is there.”
If not Tuesday against the Pistons, expect Parker to return for sure, barring any setbacks in workouts, next Friday at home against the Suns.
Tony Parker has constantly re-aggravated his hamstring injury which says to me that he probably won’t be 100% for the rest of his career.
As for Kawhi Leonard. He still has weeks to go after tearing a ligament in his hand. He’ll be in his suit attire for some time.
The news on Leonard, who has a torn ligament in his right hand and is set to miss his tenth straight game and 12th out of the past 14, is far worse. Popovich said “it’s going to be weeks,” before he returns to action, and then clarified the problem. It’s not a simple matter of pain threshold.
“His hand doesn’t work,” Popovich explained. “It hurts, but if it just hurt he’d play. He’s a tough kid. The hand doesn’t work. It doesn’t catch things and he can’t do what you do to shoot and can’t grab.”
Pop did go on to add that the team’s medical staff is seeing some progress with the injury, where slowly but surely Leonard is experiencing less pain and more use of the hand, but cautioned that “it’s not nearly enough to play.”
The only good news, really, is that off-season surgery doesn’t seem to be in Leonard’s future. “It doesn’t look like that right now,” Popovich noted. “He’s seen doctors and gotten some opinions and nobody’s talking about operating on it.“
The Spurs will be without their future franchise star for some time. But if anybody can do more with less. It’s the San Antonio Spurs.
