After a 15 month layoff from the court, Klay Thompson punched the clock for his first official round of practices since injuring his knee in the 2019 NBA Finals. The Splash Brother was back on the court at Chase Center with his teammates at the Golden State Warriors’ voluntary offseason minicamp.
During his time in the Dubble, the Splash Brother checked off a handful of boxes when it came to his injury recovery. With two weeks worth of practices under his belt, Thompson is continuing to check off boxes in his injury rehab.
Following Golden State’s practices in the Dubble, Steve Kerr expects Thompson to be ready for training camp at the start of the 2020-21 season. In an appearance on The Athletic’s “The TK Pod” with Tim Kawakami, Kerr said Thompson’s knee is “fully healed.”
Kerr via The Athletic’s “The TK Pod:”
No, he’s not a question mark. The camp for Klay was really about just taking the next steps of his process. His knee is fully healed, the ligament is totally strong — this was more about Klay just kind of feeling the contact again.
Along with taking part in controlled 5-on-5 drill work, Kerr said the sharpshooting guard spent time in 1-vs-1 battles with newly hired assistant coach Leandro Barbosa.
He took part in a lot of 5-on-5 controlled drill work, and he didn’t play in the 5-on-5 scrimmages just because we wanted to be really deliberate with what he was doing — the movement, figuring out where he needed to strengthen his legs and his hips, that kind of stuff. So, Klay and Rick [Celebrini] worked really closely together. Leandro Barbosa and Klay played 1-on-1 pretty much every day, which was really helpful for Klay. There was just kind of the next logical step for him in his in his rehab process but, he’s definitely going to be good to go once camp starts.
During the minicamp, the Golden State Warriors shared a pair of videos from Thompson’s workout in the Dubble. Along with knocking down some of his signature jumpers, the five-time All-Star threw down a fierce one-handed jam at Chase Center.
Via @warriors on Twitter:
GET UP THEN
The Dubble || @NetSuite pic.twitter.com/ztz4vWj8Y2
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) September 30, 2020
Poetry in motion.
The Dubble || @netsuite pic.twitter.com/m9d9ilH6Vl
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) October 6, 2020
As his injury continues to progress in a positive direction, the Warriors can turn their attention to building the team around Thompson. Before they’re on the court at Golden State’s preseason training camp, Bob Myers and Kerr will have the opportunity to tweak their roster at the NBA Draft and the free agency window.
