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Klay Thompson will surely hope to avoid getting hurt again in his return and the Golden State Warriors could definitely help him with that.
Initial reports stated that the Warriors could have Klay Thompson available around Christmas Day. Now, it is believed that they're planning to welcome him back in one of their home games in January. Regardless, the only thing certain is the All-Star shooting guard is nearing his return.
Like most of his teammates, Stephen Curry is hyped about his Splash Brother's NBA comeback. The two-time NBA scoring champ even assumed that Warriors head coach will have a “problem” trying to work on his rotations given the backcourt will be stacked once Thompson arrives.
“Now, the only challenge is how do you balance so much talent and opportunity for everybody to get a little piece of the pie. Because I mean right now we played 12 guys and you got Klay Thompson and James Wiseman back at home playing 5-on-5 and getting ready. So that is a great problem to have,” Curry assessed.
“But that is the challenge of what we have in terms of balancing how many guys you can throw out there every single night and creating a solid rotation that's going to help us win a championship, so that's the secret sauce, right now,” he continued.
It could be true. However, the Warriors must not get too excited about it and forget the most important thing–do not let Thompson get hurt again.
With that in mind, a no-brainer is that the Dubs will limit Thompson's playing time. That's good. But one thing coach Kerr has to be very smart about is “when” to actually throw the player in.
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More likely, Thompson will not start and will play as a substitute for a give or take 20 minutes. Logical? Yes. However, this is what the Warriors are missing out here. The best time in the 48 minutes to play a fresh off a scary injury Thompson is in the beginning of the game.
Not all the time but most of the time, be it the playoffs or regular season, players are still warming up during first quarters. In simpler terms, less action. At this stage, the chances of the opposing players getting physical with Thompson is way lower than that of the second half's.
Atop that, the first quarter is not a deciding quarter so there's no pressure for all 10 players on the floor. No one is moving extra faster, no one is putting on extra work in general. Therefore, Thompson could get in and out of the court untouched.
Until then, the Warriors must first ensure that Thompson is 100% ready to make his much-awaited return, something that is still certain at this point.
“I don’t know exactly how it’s going to pan out,” Kerr recently said of Thompson's return. “I know that when we get back from this trip I’ll put my head together with (Director of Sports Medicine and Performance) Rick (Celebrini)’s and Klay’s and we’ll talk about it – and Bob (Myers) – and we’ll see where everything stands.”
If necessary, Kerr even came clean that Thompson could do another spell in the G-League.
