San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard emerged as one of the NBA’s top overall players last season, averaging 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals over 33.4 minutes per contest.As a result, he finished in third place in the NBA MVP voting, in front of LeBron James and behind Russell Westbrook and James Harden.Heading into this season, the general expectation was that Leonard would continue his rise and potentially emerge as an MVP-favorite, since Westbrook was joined by both Paul George and Carmelo Anthony and Harden now had Chris Paul beside him after a very busy offseason.However, news broke that Leonard would not be ready for the season opener with an injury that was later termed as tendinopathy in his right quadriceps. Then he sat out the next game. Days turned into weeks and weeks continued to pile up before he finally made his debut on December 12. The team spent the first 27 games of the year without him on the floor.In typical fashion, the Spurs have been cautious with Leonard.He played 17-or-fewer minutes in his first three games and has been held out of all back-to-backs since returning to the floor, topping the 30-minute mark just once in nine contests played. Dealing with a shoulder injury, he has also missed time recently. Overall, he is averaging 16.2 points, 4.7 boards, 2.3 assists and 2.0 steals in just 23.3 minutes per game.Coming as a bit of a surprise, on Wednesday, the Spurs announced that Leonard would be out indefinitely to once again rehab the quad injury that has lingered since the beginning part of the season."He didn't re-injure it or anything. But you know he was having pain, not right after games but maybe the next day," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Wednesday, per ESPN’s Ian Begley and Michael C. Wright. "... The pain wasn't dissipating, it wasn't going in the right direction, it was going the other way.”

Popovich described the decision to hold Leonard out as “conservative” and dismissed the notion that he would be out for the remainder of the year.

"You've got to be confident in your body to go out there and play at the level that he's expected to play," the coach said. "... We didn't feel he was ready, his confidence level wasn't there, so we just decided to give it some more time.”

Since the team is 30-16 after beating the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night and stand in third place in the Western Conference standings, they are in a position to allow their superstar to return to full health. They have gone 25-12 this season without Leonard in the lineup as of Wednesday night and have benefitted from strong play by LaMarcus Aldridge, who has shouldered the go-to scorer's load on the offensive end of the floor.

Despite their success, Popovich understands that in order to beat the top teams in the West, they’ll need Leonard to be on the court.

"It's a horrible situation. It's bad," Popovich noted. "When the players look right and left they don't know who's going to be there from night to night. And it's tough to get a rhythm and get a flow to the game for sure. ... To play with the big boys, you've got to have all of your guys. So we got to get them ready if we think we're going to have anything to do with the end of the season.”

As the five-time champion coach understands, the playoffs are where teams need to be at full strength and fully-clicking. Therefore, do not expect the organization to rush Leonard back in any circumstance during the regular season.