It’s been a lost year for the Golden State Warriors, largely thanks to a pair of injuries to the team’s two best players. Klay Thompson suffered a torn ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals, while Steph Curry broke his hand in the team’s fourth game of the year. Guys like Draymond Green and new addition D’Angelo Russell have tried to keep the team afloat, but this has quickly turned into a rebuilding squad for the Dubs, which have the second-worst record in the league at 9-30.
Golden State has used this year to figure out which youngsters could be pieces around its core moving forward, although that’s made easier by having Curry and Thompson on the floor. As Kerr explained in a recent appearance on “Posted Up with Chris Haynes,” there is good news and bad news on that front.
“Steph for sure,” Kerr said when asked if the two-time MVP will return this year. “His injury is not nearly as serious as Klay’s because we’re dealing with a hand and not a knee. We’ll re-evaluate Steph some time in February, but I think there’s an excellent chance he comes back sometime in March, late in the season, which we would all welcome. I think our fans deserve to see him play, he’s dying to play, our young players wanna play with him. So, if we can get him back at the end of the season, I think that’d be great.”
Getting Curry back that late in the year won’t make the Warriors a threat to push for a playoff spot, but it will be good to just see him on the floor again. That may not be the case for Thompson, though, as Kerr is bearish on a potential return.
“Klay I doubt will play,” Kerr said. “Coming off an ACL, just the timeframe, we wouldn’t wanna put him in that kind of jeopardy.”
It does make sense — Thompson suffered a serious knee injury in June and while he’s the kind of competitor who would would love to return to the floor as soon as possible, making sure he’s at 100 percent heading into 2020-21 should absolutely be the Warriors’ priority. Perhaps this changes if Golden State catches fire and makes a push for the eight seed, but with that seeming like it’s out the window, it’s hard to blame the team for taking a more cautious approach.
