The ongoing saga between Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs is extremely confusing.

After gaining medical clearance from team doctors, Leonard has held himself out for an undisclosed reason. As a result, his teammates reportedly recently called a player’s-only meeting in which they urged Leonard to return.

"The conversation was described as tense and emotional at times,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported. “Several teammates spoke up, expressing frustration and confusion over a growing divide that has created significant tension between Leonard and the Spurs. Outside the Spurs locker room, players' voices could be heard through the door, sources said.”

Woj added that ”Leonard remained resolute in his response, insisting that he has good reason to continue sitting out because he still isn't fully healthy, sources said. Leonard told his teammates that he planned to return once he felt able to do so, sources said."

Previously, Manu Ginobili went on the record and stated that he doesn’t think Leonard will return this season.

"He is not coming back," Ginobili said, per ESPN's Michael C. Wright. "For me, he's not coming back because it's not helping [to think Leonard is returning]. We fell for it a week ago again. I guess you guys made us fall for it.”

He added, ”But we have to think that he's not coming back, that we are who we are, and that we got to fight without him. That shouldn't be changing, at least until he is ready for the jump ball.”

On Friday, the Spurs picked up a huge win over the Utah Jazz to improve to 43-30 on the year. Although they’d be in the playoffs if the season ended right now, they’re still in major jeopardy to miss out on the postseason considering the fact that the third-through-tenth seeds in the West are separated by only a handful of games.

Before the game, Popovich opened up to reporters regarding Leonard and the meeting. In the process, he raised a couple important points.

"I only talk about the things that I know, and I know he's worked hard to get back. It's been frustrating,” he said, via Wright. “You don't think he wants to come back? You don't think we want him back? But the fact that he's not back, it frustrates everybody for all the obvious reasons. But there's no blame to be placed, on him or anybody else. It's just an unfortunate situation. So what we do, what we think about, we're going to do what we've been doing. The guys that are playing, that's who the team is. And if he got added to the team, well that's great. But you have to act like it's not going to happen because you have to be who you are. And he's not with us right now. So this team has to have its own identity. That seems pretty logical. That's the only way to look at this.”

Since he noted that Leonard wants to return, it seems as though the coach has some knowledge of Leonard’s current mindset. It remains to be seen if and when the All-Star forward will suit up again for the Spurs this season. In order to make any noise in the West, it’s safe to say that San Antonio needs him on the court.

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