Tony Parker: 'At Some Point It Makes No Sense' for Kawhi Leonard Injury Return

San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker suggested on Thursday that time may be running out this season on a Kawhi Leonard return.

According to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News, Parker is hopeful that Leonard will return from injury, but he added, "At some point, it makes no sense [to bring him back]."

Leonard has missed all but nine games this season with a nagging quad injury.

ESPN's Lisa Salters reported that Leonard was expected to return as early as Thursday against the New Orleans Pelicans, but he will not play in Thursday's game.

A source indicated to ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne that Leonard could instead return to action next week.

The Spurs have dropped 11 of their past 15 games, and they are outside the playoffs in the Western Conference at 38-30.

San Antonio is technically tied with the Utah Jazz for eighth, but it would miss the playoffs if they started today based on tiebreakers.

The Spurs haven't missed the playoffs since 1996-97, which was the year Gregg Popovich replaced Bob Hill as head coach after a 3-15 start.

San Antonio also hasn't won less than 61 percent of its games in a single season since then, but it currently has a winning percentage of just 55.9 percent.

Leonard, who finished third in MVP voting last season, would undoubtedly provide a huge boost to the Spurs' playoff efforts down the stretch if he can get healthy.

LaMarcus Aldridge is San Antonio's only other player averaging better than 11.3 points per game, and it can be argued that the Spurs simply aren't a playoff-quality team in the competitive Western Conference without Leonard in the fold.