For the San Antonio Spurs, the drama in these playoffs does not just unfold on the basketball court. Down 0-2 in their first-round series matchup with the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs are also trying to wade through the issue of Kawhi Leonard’s inability to play despite San Antonio clearing him medically to return to action.

The Spurs have been utterly dominated by Golden State in both of the first two games of the series, putting a more intense focus on Leonard.

Although Leonard’s absence has been undeniably frustrating to the Spurs and their fans, San Antonio’s management has yet to reach the point in which it is already seriously considering shipping the two-way forward to another team — at least that's how the Spurs want outsiders to see this situation, per Marc Stein of The New York Times.

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One well-placed insider who has closely monitored this situation told me recently that the Spurs continue to give off signals behind the scenes that they won't trade Leonard. I'm sure they want Leonard to believe that, but this saga has reached the point that a trade has to be considered no less likely than the prospect of a Pop/Kawhi summit that leads to a detente.

Kawhi Leonard is about to enter the last year of the five-year deal he signed with the Spurs back in 2015, and it’s likely that he and his team are taking absolute extreme measures of precaution with regards to his injury to make sure he’ll be 100 percent healthy when the time comes to negotiate for a new contract.

In any case, Leonard is definitely not helping the Spurs this postseason.