But, he has missed the first 11 games of the season while slowly recovering from an ankle injury. Of course the Spurs have stayed afloat under head coach Gregg Popovic, going 7-4, but they clearly are missing Leonard's talents on both ends of the fl

"Every time a team has to adjust to playing without its main player, others have to step up and gain confidence, and they end up being better players," Ginobili told reporters after shootaround Tuesday morning, per Tom Osborn of mySA.com . "I think it is a great thing for guys like Bryn (Forbes), Brandon (Paul), even Kyle (Anderson), because they are having to be more responsible offensively, have more possessions, make more decisio

If the Rockets can figure out how to best utilize Paul over the course of the long, 82-game regular season, they should remain a viable contender in the Western Conference and could potentially challenge the Golden State Warriors down the stretch. As the team’s prized addition in the offseason, Paul will have a major role in determining their ceil

Last season, San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard was one of the most valuable players in the entire NBA, posting 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game as perhaps the league's best two-way fo

Having dropped their season opener against the Cavs, the Celtics also lost their home opener to the Bucks on Wednesday to fall to an early 0-2 record. They will have to figure out how to compensate for the loss of their All-Star forw

In Wisconsin, however, those numbers would prove to be valuable for his new team as they would love to ease the scoring load on star player Giannis Antetokounmpo and rely on another player to create his own offe

"We won't know really what we look like until I get back out there," Paul said . "(But) man, I'm learning so much - so much. …I think the biggest thing that we talk about as a team is communication, so we're trying to make sure we continue to get better and better at that - especially on the defensive e

Naturally, there are a few questions about Paul’s return. What happens with Gordon, who is on an absolute tear? How will the ball-handling duties be split between him, Gordon and Harden? Will he start or come off the bench? How many minutes will he play? Rotationally, what makes se

"He rebounds, blocks shots, is solid defensively, is athletic, deflects passes and stuff like that," Ginobili said of Green . "He’s been huge for the last three years, for sure, and is getting better. Now, he is our main guy defensively and he is going to be for a while. Even when Kawhi (is healthy), sometimes he takes the toughest opponent, so he’s been very reliab

The 27-year-old averaged a career-high 21.1 points, 6.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game on 43.4 percent shooting last season with Phoenix but his numbers didn't have much effect on the team as they were constantly losing ga

The French point guard made his long-awaited return from a torn quad muscle in the team's home win over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night and revealed that Leonard is not too far behind having worked out with him recen

So, while the Spurs are certainly rooting for Leonard to get healthy as soon as possible, they're making the best of the situation. Given their unprecedented stability as the most consistent franchise in sports injury resources|https://Sportsinjuryfocus.Com/ during the Popovich Era, they know exactly how to handle situations like t

Popovich, however, disputed Parker's claims telling reporters that his assessment should be taken under caution, which just seems to add to the uncertainty around the whole situation and again shows that the organization is not willing to share much informat

"But this is a setback; we're expecting a full recovery," Stevens noted . "And we know there are going to be a lot of tough days ahead on that recovery but, at the same time, hopefully he'll improve day to day. But it's been tough. It's been tough for h

"I was [at the hospital] for a minute last night and also again today for an hour or so. He's down," Stevens said, via ESPN . "Obviously, there's a physical pain to it, but I think it's also doubled by the emotional pain of, you know, he put a lot of effort into trying to start this, his career, out well in Bost

Heading into this season, Leonard seemingly had his best shot at securing his first-ever MVP award since Paul George and Carmelo Anthony joined reigning MVP Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City and Chris Paul joined MVP runner-up James Harden in Hous

Despite not featuring in the playoffs in the four years he spent in Arizona, he should still be able to deal with pressure situations better than some of the Bucks youngsters and take on more responsibility both on and off the fl

It's difficult to play good D on a rebuilding team filled with young players still learning their assignments, so it's unfair to point to Bledsoe's deficiencies on that end of the floor in a Suns unif