Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is already preparing for a hefty change in his roster, one that kept only a handful of players returning from a grueling 2018-19 season. Among them is the absence of Klay Thompson, who is expected to miss several months recovering from a torn ACL, which he suffered in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
The adjustment will be quite prominent, given that he's been the perennial catch-and-shoot threat for this franchise and one that has cashed in at a 40% or better rate through each of his eight NBA seasons.
“Klay being out is really the big change,” Kerr told Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “Losing Kevin, Andre, Shaun, obviously, those are huge losses. Losing Klay on top of all that really changes the way we’re going to have to play at both ends. Klay was always an integral part of everything. Movement on offense, but also the guarding of the ballhandler on defense, switching onto bigs. So until he gets back, we’ve got to re-imagine everything and adapt accordingly.”
Losing a sniper of such kind could prove a definite blow for a team that has been able to count with its iron man for the vast part of this five-year Finals-bound championship run. The addition of D'Angelo Russell could ameliorate a few of these woes, but by no means poses a replacement to the deadeye ability to knock down shots with elite efficiency or take on the opposition's best player in the perimeter.
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