The start of the Golden State Warriors offseason minicamp has seen the return of a familiar face at the practice facility. After missing the entire 2019-20 campaign, Klay Thompson joined the Warriors on the practice floor at Golden State’s offseason minicamp.
During camp, Thompson will go throughout group workouts with his teammates at Chase Center for the first time since tearing his ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals.
According to Steve Kerr, the Warriors are “taking it really slow” with Thompson’s return to practice. During the Warriors scrimmage at camp on Tuesday, Thompson spent time working with new assistant coach, Leandro Barbosa. Although he didn’t participate in Golden State’s official team scrimmage, Kerr said the Washington State product took part in drills that included a “controlled scrimmage.”
Kerr via Warriors SoundCloud:
Klay [Thompson] didn’t scrimmage. He did everything else in practice. When we started to scrimmage — a short burst series of quick games, he went and worked with LB [Leandro Barbosa]. We’re trying to get him really more 1-on-1 work, and specific work to the rehabilitation process that exists for an ACL. So even though his injury is fully healed, the ligament’s fully healed — because he hasn’t played 5-on-5, he’s just got to work on certain muscles, certain movements and that sort of thing.
We’re taking it really slow with Klay. He’s basically taking part in all of practice other than the scrimmage. We did other drills that were live. We did some defensive drills, 5-on-5, more of a controlled scrimmage that he took part in. But at the end of practice scrimmage, we had him doing some 1-on-1 stuff with Leandro. That is the preferable sequence right now.
Although it’s a positive step for Thompson to be back on the court, there’s no urgency to rush him back at this point in the offseason. As the sharpshooting guard continues to knock the rust off, the Warriors can work him back at a steady pace during their extended offseason.
With the Warriors practicing in their San Francisco “Dubble” through Oct. 6, there’s still an opportunity for Kerr to run Thompson out for his first live 5-on-5 work since game six of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
