San Antonio Spurs: Kawhi Leonard Out Tuesday vs Dallas Mavericks

San Antonio Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard will miss Tuesday’s opening game against the Dallas Mavericks.

In the midst of a contract extension, NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard will miss the San Antonio Spurs’ opener against the Dallas Mavericks Tuesday, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein.

San Antonio just announced that Kawhi Leonard is officially OUT of Tuesday night's opener against Dallas
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 27, 2014

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It’s rather strange that Leonard isn’t back for the Spurs yet after sitting out since October 11 with an eye infection. That’s something that doesn’t usually take three weeks to recover from. Leonard saw an eye doctor on Thursday and didn’t practice on Sunday, either, because of the infection. He was reevaluated Monday, and apparently that evaluation led the Spurs to rule him out for Tuesday’s game.

After winning Finals MVP, Leonard was expected to take a big step this season as the guy that will lead the Spurs into the post-Duncan era. Leonard, 23, averaged 12.8 points and 6,2 rebounds last season while providing not-notch defense. He’s set to make $2.89 million this season on his rookie-scale contract, which could change if given an extension.

The Spurs will surely want to lock him up for the long term and are expected to give him a max deal. However, Yahoo Sports reported earlier that negotiations “have failed to gather traction despite a looming Friday deadline.”

The eye infection certainly does not help matters. In a perfect world, the Spurs would want to see their star of the future perform with new pressures on his shoulders. However, that may not happen by Friday if Leonard can’t suit up.

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