Finals Return Still Possible For Kevon Looney?

The Warriors plan to have Klay Thompson (hamstring) back for Game 4 of the NBA Finals, and are “cautiously optimistic” that Kevin Durant (calf) might be able to play too. That would leave Kevon Looney as the only Golden State rotation player unavailable.

However, even though head coach Steve Kerr said on Tuesday that Looney would miss the rest of the NBA Finals after suffering a costal cartilage fracture, Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com hears from sources that Looney isn’t ready to shut it down for the season.

According to Bontemps, now that Looney has undergone further evaluation on his chest/collarbone injury, there’s a belief that a Finals return may still be possible. More testing will determine what the next steps will be for the veteran center, per Bontemps.

Looney’s injury, specifically known as a “non-displaced first costal cartilage fracture,” isn’t a particularly common one among NBA players, so it’s not clear what his exact recovery timeline should look like. It seems safe to say that he’d be attempting to return well ahead of schedule though.

Given the cautious approach the Warriors have taken with Durant’s and Thompson’s injuries, I don’t imagine they’ll allow Looney to rush back before he’s ready if there’s any risk of making things worse. We’ll see if he can make enough progress in his recovery to make it back before the end of the series — even a potential Game 7 is just 10 days away.

While Looney may not swing the series, he’d be a very useful rotation piece for a Golden State team that has struggled to get consistent production out of its centers so far against the Raptors.