Warriors fans will have to wait just a little bit longer before the highly anticipated reunion of Golden State’s “Big Three.”
Five-time All-Star Klay Thompson is expected to play this season after missing the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns, but he won’t be available to start the year. That’s not a huge surprise considering he hasn’t participated in an NBA game since June of 2019 when the Warriors lost to the Raptors in the NBA Finals.
What’s next for Thompson? Here’s everything we know about his injury and the latest news on when he may return to the court.
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What is Klay Thompson’s injury?
Thompson was on the road to recovery after missing the entirety of the 2019-20 NBA season with a torn ACL in his left knee. Then, in November of 2020, he went down with a leg injury during an offseason workout in Southern California. The Warriors’ worst fears were realized when it was confirmed that Thompson had suffered a torn right Achilles.
The Warriors announced on Nov. 25 that Thompson underwent successful surgery to repair the torn Achilles. As part of a team statement, Golden State said that Thompson was “expected to make a full recovery.”
How long will Klay Thompson be out?
On the Oct. 14 edition of Stadium’s “Inside the Association” show, Shams Charania reported that Thompson “will be cleared for full practice over the next month or so.”
“From there, it’s just gonna be about him ramping up, him rehabbing, continuing to figure out at what pace do they want to bring him back and when do they feel comfortable with him back,” Charania said. “It’s not just gonna be he gets cleared for practice after two major injuries and then just goes into playing. There will be a ramp-up period. I would look somewhere in the December-January range for his return, but the Warriors will be cautious.
“They’ve been doing a lot of data and science and leaning a lot on data and science, I’m told. I would expect them to continue to do that.”
During an August episode of “The Jump,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that the Warriors were initially targeting the team’s Christmas Day game against the Suns for Thompson’s return. That would mark 13 months since his Achilles surgery.
“A lot of this is conditioning,” Shelburne said. “He’s doing well in his rehab, but he’s missed two seasons in a row now. So you don’t bring him back [too early]. This is a conservative target. If he does well and his conditioning is up and he feels like he wants to come back earlier, he will. But this is a conservative target of Christmas Day because you need time to build your conditioning back up when you miss two NBA seasons.”
Klay Thompson career stats, highlights
- 19.5 points per game
- 3.5 rebounds per game
- 2.3 assists per game
- 0.5 blocks per game
- 0.9 steals per game
- 1.7 turnovers per game
- 33.1 minutes per game
- 45.9 percent shooting
- 41.9 percent 3-point shooting
- 84.8 percent free throw shooting
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