Klay, on verge of comeback, tears Achilles in workout
It doesn’t get much worse than this.
After missing an entire season with a torn left ACL, Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson tore the Achilles in his other leg, the team confirmed in a statement.
He will miss the entire 202021 season, throwing a wrench in what was supposed to be a bounce-back year for Golden State.
Thompson, who hurt himself in a workout on Wednesday and could not put weight on his right leg, should expect to make a full recovery based on the type of Achilles tear he sustained, ESPN reported.
When he returns from missing two full seasons, he will be going on 32 years old.
The Warriors, hit by a rash of injuries each to Thompson, Stephen Curry (wrist), D’Angelo Russell (shoulder) and Draymond Green (knee), finished last season with a 15-50 record, good for their fourth-worst winning percentage (.231) in franchise history.
The understanding, however, was that this was an outlier for a Warriors team that had become a league juggernaut, running the table for three championships in a four-year span. It could have been four in five seasons had both Thompson and Kevin Durant not suffered season-ending injuries in the 2019 NBA Finals.
One-off just became two, and the long, dreaded history of the Achilles injury does not paint a bright picture for Thompson, who now has two significant leg injuries in the middle of his prime years.
It also begs a question: What are the Warriors going to do from here?
Golden State’s awful season earned them the No. 2 overall pick in Wednesday’s NBA Draft, which they used to select James Wiseman, a dominant big man who only played three games at Memphis before he was ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season.
Midway through last season, the Warriors traded Russell to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Andrew Wiggins (and Minnesota’s 2021 first-round draft pick).
The Warriors have already started making adjustments: They used their $17.2 million trade exception to acquire forward Kelly Oubre Jr. from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Oubre, who the Thunder acquired from the Suns in the Chris Paul trade, averaged about 19 points and six boards in Phoenix last season. At a 35% clip from downtown, he is not the shooter Thompson is, but to be fair, few, if any players are.
The Warriors have also applied for the Disabled Player Exception ( DPE) for Thompson’s season-ending injury. If awarded, which they likely will be, the Warriors will be able to exceed the salary cap to sign or trade for a player whose contract is worth up to the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception amount of $9.25 million.
Portland’s free agent wing Rodney Hood could be a target as another perimeter player who can space the floor and generate offense. Nets reserve guard Tyler Johnson — who the franchise signed just ahead of entering the Orlando bubble — could also be a good fit. Johnson revitalized his career in the bubble after becoming an afterthought in Phoenix. He averaged 12 points and three assists on nearly 40% shooting from three with the Nets and could be a fit off the bench in the Warriors’ back court.
The DPE, like the TPE, can also be used to acquire a player in a trade, though that player must only have one year remaining on his deal, including any options on his contract.
A Golden State season with championship hopes was just dealt a crushing blow, but that doesn’t mean the Warriors are going to lay down and tank. It may be quite the opposite: This is a core used to competing at the highest level. Expect the front office to make the necessary acquisitions for this team to make some noise.