After tearing his ACL during the NBA Finals in the spring, Klay Thompson has expressed doubt that he’ll be back on the court for the Warriors before the All-Star break. Speaking today to reporters, Golden State’s president of basketball operations Bob Myers confirmed as much.
“He’s doing fine,” Myers said of Thompson. “We’ll have an update on him at the All-Star break.”
Assuming Thompson’s rehab process doesn’t unexpectedly speed up in the coming months, the earliest he might return would be February 20, the Warriors’ first game after the All-Star break. That would be the team’s 56th game of the season.
Of course, based on Myers’ comment that the Warriors won’t even provide an update on their All-Star sharpshooter until mid-February, it’s also possible that his return date will come even later than that.
As we wait to see how Thompson’s recovery progresses, here are a few more Warriors notes from Media Day:
- Willie Cauley-Stein suffered a strained left foot during a recent workout and will miss training camp, Myers said today (Twitter link via Anthony Slater of The Athletic). Head coach Steve Kerr acknowledged that Kevon Looney now looks like the probable starter at center to open the season. “I had big plans for Looney anyway,” Kerr said (Twitter link via Slater).
- Myers said that there are no plans to put Stephen Curry on a minutes limit or to have him sit out games this season for load management reasons (Twitter link via Friedell). Still, the Warriors will keep an eye on the former MVP’s minutes as the seasons unfolds.
- Kerr said he intends to stagger Curry’s and D’Angelo Russell‘s minutes to some extent this season to help balance the Warriors’ offense (Twitter link via Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated).
- Myers admitted that it will be hard to make any changes to Golden State’s roster this season due to the team’s hard cap (Twitter link via Mark Medina of USA Today).
Not giving Steph a minutes restriction of any kind is a very bad idea. Over the past five seasons they have had the depth to keep him right around 33 minutes per game, but this season they will no longer have that luxury. Both he and Draymond will have to play a lot more minutes than they’re used to with Klay out at least the first 55 games of the season. This is a recipe for disaster.
What do you mean by disaster? You think they’ll miss the playoffs?
That all depends on whether or not both Curry and Green can stay healthy for most of the season. Curry only missed 13 games last season, but two seasons ago he missed 31 games. If he misses 30 games again they will probably lose at least 20 of those games which would almost certainly cause them to miss the playoffs.
The last time Steph Curry was able to run an offense without KD the Warriors won 73 games and Chef was the first ever unanimous MVP. I don’t think limiting him in anyway is a good idea for the warriors who are essentially battling for a 6-8 seed