His ongoing ramp-up toward a normal minutes load isn't the only reason Klay Thompson has struggled in the season's earliest going. As Steve Kerr remembers it, the Golden State Warriors sharpshooter has never been an especially good starter in his decorated career—even before it was put on hold for two-and-half years by an ACL tear and ruptured Achilles tendon.

“He has traditionally started slow with his shooting. He always forgets that this happened before he was injured, too,” Kerr told Matt Steinmetz and Daryle Johnson during his Wednesday radio appearance on Steiny & Guru. “I don’t think this has anything to do with the injury. He’s always been a little bit of a slow starter.”

Thompson is averaging 11.0 points, 2.5 and 2.8 assists during the Warriors' uneven 2-2 start, limited to 22.3 minutes per game because he didn't participate in 5-on-5 action with his teammates until a week before the season tipped off. A resulting lack of rhythm has no doubt contributed to his 28.6% three-point shooting, an ugly number made worse by homing in on his highest-quality looks.

Thompson hitting just 20.0% percent of his catch-and-shoot triples, per NBA.com/stats, and is 1-of-8 on “wide open” long-range tries that come with the nearest defender six feet away or further.

Obviously, Thompson will improve significantly on those specific numbers as the season continues. Four games is too small a sample size to draw pretty much any concrete statistical conclusions, especially for a player with Thompson's years-long history of elite three-point shooting.

Kerr isn't wrong about Thompson's pre-injury penchant for slow starts, either. He shot 13.6% from deep over the first four games of 2018-19 and 10.7% on threes through the first four outings of 2016-17. The only time Thompson came out firing on all cylinders during Kerr's tenure came in the latter's debut season, all the way back in 2014-15.

Thompson's accuracy on good looks from beyond the arc should be the least of Golden State's worries right now. It'd be shocking if he didn't at least reach the solid level of efficiency on those tries he did after making his long-awaited return to the floor last season. A summer of full health and additional time removed from his surgeries suggest Thompson will be better than that, too.

His re-acclimation isn't finished yet. Once it is, expect Thompson to shake off the early-season shooting labors that have quietly marked much of his career.

[h/t 95.7 The Game]