With the Golden State Warriors left out of the NBA’s 22-team return plan in Orlando, their 2019-20 campaign is officially over. While the Warriors season is ending, one of their All-Star shooter’s year was decided before the league was put on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After missing a majority of the year due to an injury he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals, the Warriors officially ruled out Klay Thompson for the season in late February.
On a conference call with Bay Area media, Golden State general manager Bob Myers spoke about Thompson’s path back to the court. While he’s unsure if Thompson is 100% healthy, Myers said there’s been no setback in his recovery.
I don’t know. I think we’ve got to take a look at him when we see him, and there’s different versions of 100%. 100% for you or I to walk around the street is not 100% of an NBA basketball player playing basketball. So until we kind of test him and see him and you start him one-on-one and then two-on-two and obviously the pandemic has not allowed him the opportunity to do those types of things. There’s no rush clearly.
As far as I’ve heard, he’s recovering fine. There hasn’t been a setback. But one thing that’s been a little bit difficult in the last couple months is our ability to oversee those things as much as you might normally would. So I imagine at some point when we all collectively get together, I can also answer that better or would hope to answer that better as to he’s been doing— I think what people really want to know is has he been playing and what’s he look like, and that’s really the answer to 100%, and we won’t know that until we kind of reach that point in time.
Listen to Myers full presser via Warriors SoundCloud:
With Golden State getting an early jump on the offseason, the team has plenty of time to get Thompson back to 100%. Once healthy, Thompson will need to work back to game speed after facing a significant layoff from the court. Over the offseason, Thompson will have his first opportunity to get familiar with teammates like Andrew Wiggins, Eric Paschall and Marquese Chriss in the lineup.
During the NBA’s suspension, Thompson released a documentary that features an inside look at his rehab from injury. “Above The Waves” follows Thompson from the time he injures his knee in the Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
While the Warriors won’t be traveling to Orlando with 22 other teams, their San Francisco practice facility is back open for business. With Chase Center available for individual workouts, Golden State will have a better chance to evaluate where Thompson is at in his rehab.
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