The State of Golden State for 2020-2021 Season

Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson has suffered a torn right Achilles tendon. Thompson tore his Achilles after a workout he had in southern California on November 18, an MRI confirmed yesterday in Los Angeles. The all-star shooting guard has now been ruled out for the upcoming 202-2021 NBA season set to start on December 22nd. This is a devastating blow for the Warriors given that this will be the second straight season that Klay has missed due to injury.

Thompson was coming off a torn ACL injury to his left knee that he suffered in the NBA Finals in June of 2019. His rehab had been going according to plan he was gearing up to play his first game in over a year with the start of the 2020-2021 season. Thompson had been working out in the southern California area for the past few months rehabbing and training. Thompson was playing with several NBA players in Los Angeles during an open gym and felt pain in the calf area when he landed on his leg, sources told ESPN’s, Ramona Shelburne. All reports show no sign that Thompson’s rehab process had any real setbacks outside of the normal soreness that comes with rehabbing a knee injury. He had been attacking his rehab process as rigorously as he attacks his shooting workouts and now he is going to have to start the process over again.  The Warriors were very optimistic that their star sharpshooter was going to come back full strength to help them compete in a revamped Western Conference. The Warriors are tasked with filling the void of losing one of the best shooters and two-way players in the NBA.

Prior to his torn left ACL, Klay Thompson had been one of the most reliable players in the whole NBA. In the era of load management, Thompson never missed more than 9 games in a single season due to injury before the 2018-19 season. He was a constant for the Warriors, they could always count on his consistent defensive ability and the ridiculously efficient shooting. We saw it on full display at the beginning of the 2019-2020 season where the Warriors just didn’t look like the team we’ve gotten used to seeing. Golden State not having the splash brothers in the backcourt together and healthy just doesn’t even seem like Golden State but this is just going to be the harsh reality that the warriors will now have to deal with.

The only good news for Golden state this time around is that they are in a better position this year to stay afloat in the western conference than they were at the start of last season. The Warriors have a healthy Steph Curry and Draymond Green coming back to provide the Warriors with the veteran and playoff experience. They also got a promising young talent in James Wiseman with the 2nd overall in this year’s draft.

However, the most notable signing for the Warriors happened late last night as they will absorb the contract of Kelly Oubre Jr. At 24 years old, Oubre is approaching his 5th season in the NBA. He was traded to Oklahoma City earlier this week in a deal that sent Chris Paul to the Phoenix Suns. He averaged 18.7 points and 6.4 rebounds for the Suns last season. He showed promise for the Suns but after they went 8-0 in the NBA bubble without him, he became their assets to acquire Chris Paul. With the timing of this signing, it’s clear that the Warriors will look to Oubre to provide the boost they need at the shooting guard position without Thompson.

Even with acquiring an established replacement for Klay, having Steph and Draymond both back healthy, and some young talent around them, don’t set your expectations too high for the Warriors this season. The Warriors have just had a lot of roster changes over the past two years and there is just no evidence that this is even a playoff team anymore. Their roster as currently built can defiantly compete in the West and maybe sneak into the playoffs but missing one of the top two-way players in the league is just too large of a blow to have the same championship expectations. Unless the Warriors get Klay back for the playoffs they simply don’t have enough to get past the best of the West and get back to the NBA finals.