The San Antonio Spurs will have to get by without MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday because of a concussion. 

The Spurs announced Leonard has been placed in the concussion protocol after being hit in the head during Thursday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

Leonard has emerged as the unquestioned leader of the Spurs. He showed signs of becoming a superstar after being named NBA Finals MVP in 2014, and he has only gotten better. 

This season, for instance, Leonard leads all players with .277 win shares per 48 minutes and ranks in the top six in offensive win shares (7.6) and defensive win shares (3.7), per Basketball-Reference.com. 

Leonard is having the best offensive season of his career with 26.2 points per game, nearly nine full points ahead of LaMarcus Aldridge (17.3) among Spurs players. 

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is good at plugging in players to keep his team going strong, but the gap between Leonard and backup small forward Kyle Anderson is so significant that it will be hard for the team to succeed as long as Leonard is on the shelf. 

Injuries have been a problem for Leonard in his career, as he missed at least 16 games in three consecutive seasons from 2012-15 and 10 in 2015-16.

The Spurs have already clinched a playoff berth and are 6.5 games ahead of the Houston Rockets for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, so they can afford to be patient with Leonard to ensure he's at full strength when the postseason begins in April.