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After sitting out Sunday's game against the Dallas Mavericks, Klay Thompson is now in danger of missing more time for the Golden State Warriors. Coach Steve Kerr provided a bit of an update on his star shooting guard's status, but it doesn't really give us anything about Thompson's rather mysterious injury.
Klay was ruled out during their 107-101 loss to the Mavs after being tagged with a “general illness.” The Warriors have not provided any other information about Thompson's condition but he was reportedly seen driving away from Chase Center hours before Sunday's game started. He was likely sent home because of his condition and we just hope this isn't a COVID-related issue.
There was some optimism in Kerr's update, though. The three-time NBA champion coach did not rule out the possibility of Thompson flying out to Dallas to join the team for Thursday's rematch against the Mavs:
“We'll see,” Kerr said, via C.J. Holmes of the San Francisco Chronicle (paywalled). “It's kind of day-to-day.”
This all but confirms Thompson being unavailable for Tuesday's road game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, making it two straight missed games for him. In Thompson's stead, it was rookie Moses Moody who got the nod to start. The 19-year-old didn't exactly light up the arena Splash Brothers-style but his effective performance drew the praise of his coach:
“When Klay is out obviously we miss his two-way presence. It's one of the reasons why I started Moses last night,” Kerr said. “I thought Moses did a great job.”
Despite Moody's emergence, however, Kerr admitted that there's just no replacing Klay Thompson. According to Kerr, he intends to take a committee approach in trying to fill in for Klay's absence:
“Obviously Klay is one of the best shooters in the world so you're not going to replace that,” Kerr said. “But you do have to have shooting on the floor. Fortunately we have a deep roster with a lot of guys who can space the floor and shoot. We have Damion Lee, we have Moses, we have Jordan Poole, we have multiple players who can fill in for Klay while he's out.”
Hopefully, Thompson is able to return sooner rather than later for the Warriors. His injury does not sound serious and it's very much possible that he was just feeling under the weather. He is the type of player who plays through injuries, though, so this issue is obviously serious enough to force him to sit out at least a couple of games.
The five-time All-Star has played in 17 games since returning from a two-year injury spell on the sidelines. Over that span, Thompson has averaged 17.1 points on 42.3% shooting, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.0 assists. He's also draining 2.9 triples per game on a career-low 38.5% clip. Klay still has to shake off some rust but he's clearly getting his groove back with each game.
It's also important to note that the Warriors shooting guard has seen his minutes increase significantly of late. Over his past five games, Thompson is averaging 28.5 minutes per contest. Before going down to injury, Klay was playing around 34 minutes per game and this is the mark the Warriors will be targetting as they work him back to full strength. They're not there yet, but at this point, it's only going to be a matter of time.
