Danny Green: Kawhi Leonard said he’ll return to play for Spurs

Some of the Kawhi Leonard-Spurs standoff has played out through anonymous sources, seemingly on both sides.

Other elements have come directly from people involved. Most notably, San Antonio president-coach Gregg Popovich said last week he expected Leonard to miss the rest of the season.

The latest anonymously sourced report has Leonard targeting a return next month. That’s now corroborated by a named, though secondary, source.

Spurs guard Danny Green, via Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News:

“He said he’ll be back, so we knew he was going to be back eventually at some point -- playing-wise, not just being around. If he’s that confident mentally, I know he’s going to get the work done to get it done physically.”

This ought to nip in the bud the idea Leonard – who has reportedly been medically cleared – will malinger through the rest of the season to set up a designated-veteran-player contract extension this season or for any other reason. I doubt Leonard would tell teammates he’ll return if he doesn’t truly plan to. That’d just create needless animosity.