Klay Thompson is set to make his season debut for the Golden State Warriors.
Klay Thompson’s return from injury is almost here as Woj has reported that there is hope Thompson could play this weekend – specifically, Sunday when the Golden State Warriors play the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Thompson was initially sidelined with a torn ACL he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals. He then suffered a torn Achilles in November of 2020 while playing in a pickup game, causing him to be shelved even longer.
The information that Thompson could return this Sunday in a home game against the Cavaliers allows the Warriors to understand their roster needs further. Despite missing Thompson for an extended duration, the Warriors made it to the play-in game round last year, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers to miss out on the 8th seed.
This year, the Warriors have reclaimed their hold of the Western Conference, compiling a 29-7 record so far. The Warriors continue to fight for the top seed in the Western Conference with the Phoneix Suns, 28-8.
It is hard to determine Thompson’s immediate impact on the Warriors. We have seen players like Kevin Durant return to almost an exact form following a devastating Achilles injury. Thompson’s injury return is further muddled by suffering two devasting injuries since his last NBA action in June 2019.
While Thompson’s return is a crucial piece to the Warrior’s hopes of winning a championship, he will not be asked to do too much in his return. Steph Curry is shooting his way past records, and Draymond Green is currently a front-runner for DPOY. Also, the additions of Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. have allowed the Warrior’s to have more “switchability” on defense.
The Warriors are extremely deep, with former all-purpose forward Andre Igoudala seeing his minutes limited during the regular season, playing about 20 minutes a night.
NBA fans as a whole will be delighted to see the return of an all-time great shooter. Steve Kerr will undoubtedly find a way to ease Klay Thompson into the rotation to shake some of the rust off from his extended absence.