The state of Klay

[NeoWarriors]

I may be over optimistic about Klay's season, but I don't see him as coming off of two devastating injuries. His torn ACL was 2 years ago, it should be 100% healed. The torn Achilles is certainly more concerning but just look at Kevin Durant playing right now after one year back from an Achilles. Zach LaVine is showing no ill effects from his ACL tear, even seems like he's more athletic. My only concern with Klay is the fact that he will be rusty from having two years off of playing competitive basketball. But I see absolutely no reason why he can't get back to 100% of what he was before, in time. We've never expected Klay to beat anybody off the dribble, it was always his threat to shoot that brought people up on him. Same with his defense. He was not a good defender because of his lateral quickness or athleticism. He always depended on position and footwork, the same way Kevon Looney keeps in front of much faster players.

Any medical experts have a better view on Klay's recovery? Or share my optimism?

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[TrueFan420]

I may be over optimistic about Klay's season, but I don't see him as coming off of two devastating injuries. His torn ACL was 2 years ago, it should be 100% healed. The torn Achilles is certainly more concerning but just look at Kevin Durant playing right now after one year back from an Achilles. Zach LaVine is showing no ill effects from his ACL tear, even seems like he's more athletic. My only concern with Klay is the fact that he will be rusty from having two years off of playing competitive basketball. But I see absolutely no reason why he can't get back to 100% of what he was before, in time. We've never expected Klay to beat anybody off the dribble, it was always his threat to shoot that brought people up on him. Same with his defense. He was not a good defender because of his lateral quickness or athleticism. He always depended on position and footwork, the same way Kevon Looney keeps in front of much faster players.

Any medical experts have a better view on Klay's recovery? Or share my optimism?

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This is RealGM bro… we’re all medical experts

[Scoots1994]

Klay's mental state is the main question ... is he going to have confidence in his body to do the things it used to do? It's even worse that he's a guy who was never seriously injured before.

[GSWFan1994]

I hope he comes back at 100%, though I know it may not be part of reality.

The truth, however, is that medicine advanced a lot in the past decades... an injury which could be career-ending in the 80s/90s is not the same death sentence nowadays.

An 85% Klay is better than no Klay. And I'm pulling and will always pull for him.

[Sleepy51]

Wasn't he swimming the bay this year or something? he's going to be fine. Klay gonna Klay. W's gonna W.

[Money_]

He shoots right, jumping mostly from the left foot. I believe his Achilles injury was the right leg. He's a pure shooter, they don't need him to be super fast or athletic, he wasn't before. As long as he's not in pain or out of alignment, his shot will not be broken.
Catch and shoot. One of the smoothest shots in the NBA

[cpower]

he needs to take care of his body better, i always had the feeling that Klay was the ironman and he could do whatever he wants. But after these brutal injuries hopfully his approach would change so that his career could be prolonged. Just look at Vince Carter once was injury prone but later in his career he was managed to play most of his games until 42...hope we are seeing a 100% klay this year otherwise our run is definitely over.

[shazam_guy]

You can't "take care of your body" in the sense of avoiding all injury and still play high level basketball. Vince Carter stopped going inside, that's all, because he was old. Crashing into the paint is not a big part of Klay's game anyway, unlike Vince.

And I also have to take issue with "100 percent Klay this year or our run is over". Pretty broad take based on I'm not sure what. In fact, Poole's improvement, along with adding Moody (and Kuminga) and Otto and Iggy, means that Klay can come back a little more slowly than otherwise, take his time to make sure he's healthy, and that improves our chances for the next few years.

[GunnerWRX]

Just being realistic here. Looking at KD being at least 90-95% of pre-injury is very encouraging. However, Klay will have a shorter recovery time vs KD if he returns December, and he also had a big knee injury.

Regardless of injury, his ability to chase small guards for 35 minutes in a NBA game will gradually go down. He will become more of a SF as he ages.

His shot will always be with him so he will be fine.

My realistic expectation is he will be 75% pre-injury. I will be ecstatic if he has a KD level recovery.

[Samurai]

he needs to take care of his body better, i always had the feeling that Klay was the ironman and he could do whatever he wants. But after these brutal injuries hopfully his approach would change so that his career could be prolonged. Just look at Vince Carter once was injury prone but later in his career he was managed to play most of his games until 42...hope we are seeing a 100% klay this year otherwise our run is definitely over.

Klay hurt his knee when he was hit while landing. Those things happen when you play basketball - how do you prevent that by "taking care of your body"? Wrap your body in bubble wrap so no one can touch you? Even with bubble wrap, you can't always prevent being bumped and landing awkwardly - how does taking care of your body prevent you from landing? Taking care of your body doesn't just change the laws of gravity. And Achilles injuries sometimes happen, even to the best bodies. Also disagree that "if Klay isn't 100%, our run is definitely over." There are so many other factors at play: can Porter stay healthy? Can Poole continue his surge? How much improvement/growth does Wiseman show? How does the learning curve for JK and MM proceed? If those things work out for us, 80% of Klay can be enough for us to be a title contender this season.

So basically I disagree with pretty much everything in this post.

[cpower]

he needs to take care of his body better, i always had the feeling that Klay was the ironman and he could do whatever he wants. But after these brutal injuries hopfully his approach would change so that his career could be prolonged. Just look at Vince Carter once was injury prone but later in his career he was managed to play most of his games until 42...hope we are seeing a 100% klay this year otherwise our run is definitely over.

Klay hurt his knee when he was hit while landing. Those things happen when you play basketball - how do you prevent that by "taking care of your body"? Wrap your body in bubble wrap so no one can touch you? Even with bubble wrap, you can't always prevent being bumped and landing awkwardly - how does taking care of your body prevent you from landing? Taking care of your body doesn't just change the laws of gravity. And Achilles injuries sometimes happen, even to the best bodies. Also disagree that "if Klay isn't 100%, our run is definitely over." There are so many other factors at play: can Porter stay healthy? Can Poole continue his surge? How much improvement/growth does Wiseman show? How does the learning curve for JK and MM proceed? If those things work out for us, 80% of Klay can be enough for us to be a title contender this season.

So basically I disagree with pretty much everything in this post.

he hurt Achilles during practise which is not quite normal. i would not call that freak injury he has the whole season to let the body heal and get ready... also on the expectation i think you will be disappointed even with a 80% Klay we are no where near a title contender..we simply dont have enough depth to complete with the best teams out there.

[Brick Layer]

he needs to take care of his body better, i always had the feeling that Klay was the ironman and he could do whatever he wants. But after these brutal injuries hopfully his approach would change so that his career could be prolonged. Just look at Vince Carter once was injury prone but later in his career he was managed to play most of his games until 42...hope we are seeing a 100% klay this year otherwise our run is definitely over.

Klay hurt his knee when he was hit while landing. Those things happen when you play basketball - how do you prevent that by "taking care of your body"? Wrap your body in bubble wrap so no one can touch you? Even with bubble wrap, you can't always prevent being bumped and landing awkwardly - how does taking care of your body prevent you from landing? Taking care of your body doesn't just change the laws of gravity. And Achilles injuries sometimes happen, even to the best bodies. Also disagree that "if Klay isn't 100%, our run is definitely over." There are so many other factors at play: can Porter stay healthy? Can Poole continue his surge? How much improvement/growth does Wiseman show? How does the learning curve for JK and MM proceed? If those things work out for us, 80% of Klay can be enough for us to be a title contender this season.

So basically I disagree with pretty much everything in this post.

he hurt Achilles during practise which is not quite normal. i would not call that freak injury he has the whole season to let the body heal and get ready... also on the expectation i think you will be disappointed even with a 80% Klay we are no where near a title contender..we simply dont have enough depth to complete with the best teams out there.

I thought Klay injured his Achilles playing in a pickup game in Southern California on draft day last year.

[cpower]

Klay hurt his knee when he was hit while landing. Those things happen when you play basketball - how do you prevent that by "taking care of your body"? Wrap your body in bubble wrap so no one can touch you? Even with bubble wrap, you can't always prevent being bumped and landing awkwardly - how does taking care of your body prevent you from landing? Taking care of your body doesn't just change the laws of gravity. And Achilles injuries sometimes happen, even to the best bodies. Also disagree that "if Klay isn't 100%, our run is definitely over." There are so many other factors at play: can Porter stay healthy? Can Poole continue his surge? How much improvement/growth does Wiseman show? How does the learning curve for JK and MM proceed? If those things work out for us, 80% of Klay can be enough for us to be a title contender this season.

So basically I disagree with pretty much everything in this post.

he hurt Achilles during practise which is not quite normal. i would not call that freak injury he has the whole season to let the body heal and get ready... also on the expectation i think you will be disappointed even with a 80% Klay we are no where near a title contender..we simply dont have enough depth to complete with the best teams out there.

I thought Klay injured his Achilles playing in a pickup game in Southern California on draft day last year.

which proves my point - was he 100% to play? a pickup game is just warmups for the pros. nobody plays D.

[Mylie10]

I believe the Achilles went while shooting a jump shot

And I think the days of Klay chasing small guards is over. There will be occasional switches he’ll have to deal with. But it’s not gonna ha the game plan for him anymore.

Currys stronger now anyhow and has been pretty decent defensively. Even if the rest of the World is stuck in a time warp. Because they don’t know Steph has improved defensively, and are the Same people who can never get past Wiggins improving. Their brains won’t let them process these improvements properly.

[Old_Blue]

Klay isn't going to be what we expect of Klay at the start of the season. It's more likely we'll see him rounding into form after Christmas. This from Bob Myers...

"I don't know that it will be the start of the year, we'll see more as camp gets closer. When I say start of the year I mean Game 1, I don't know if that's realistic or not," Myers said during his end-of-season media availability. "What we're focused on is when do we expect Klay to be Klay, and I don't know if that will be January, February, March, it's too early to say."

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/bob-myers-unsure-klay-thompson-warriors-opener-realistic

[floppymoose]

He shoots right, jumping mostly from the left foot. I believe his Achilles injury was the right leg.

This was my situation exactly. I came back with the exact same amount of NBA talent I had pre-injury. Klay will be fine.

[DevinVassell]

^Bob really is the king of vaugue statements. I just tend to tune out during his interviews. Draft talk I understand but he talks to much like a polititian for me.

[Samurai]

I believe the Achilles went while shooting a jump shot

And I think the days of Klay chasing small guards is over. There will be occasional switches he’ll have to deal with. But it’s not gonna ha the game plan for him anymore.

Currys stronger now anyhow and has been pretty decent defensively. Even if the rest of the World is stuck in a time warp. Because they don’t know Steph has improved defensively, and are the Same people who can never get past Wiggins improving. Their brains won’t let them process these improvements properly.

Yes, but some believe that tearing your Achilles while shooting a jump shot is not a freak injury; if he had "taken care of his body" he would have been fine. Similar logic that if he had been born on Krypton, he would have been fine. Sure.

And I agree with you that Klay will have better success guarding 3's going forward than 1's and 2's. Steph has been getting stronger but as he ages his lateral quickness will fade. Fortunately we have Wiggins. He can defend quicker guards even if they get a step on him due to his 7-0 wingspan. He has outstanding athleticism including long arms, quick feet, and great hops. Once Klay comes back, I think you will see Klay guarding more forwards and Wiggins handling the most dangerous guards.

[xdrta+]

I believe the Achilles went while shooting a jump shot

And I think the days of Klay chasing small guards is over. There will be occasional switches he’ll have to deal with. But it’s not gonna ha the game plan for him anymore.

Currys stronger now anyhow and has been pretty decent defensively. Even if the rest of the World is stuck in a time warp. Because they don’t know Steph has improved defensively, and are the Same people who can never get past Wiggins improving. Their brains won’t let them process these improvements properly.

Yes, but some believe that tearing your Achilles while shooting a jump shot is not a freak injury; if he had "taken care of his body" he would have been fine. Similar logic that if he had been born on Krypton, he would have been fine. Sure.

And I agree with you that Klay will have better success guarding 3's going forward than 1's and 2's. Steph has been getting stronger but as he ages his lateral quickness will fade. Fortunately we have Wiggins. He can defend quicker guards even if they get a step on him due to his 7-0 wingspan. He has outstanding athleticism including long arms, quick feet, and great hops. Once Klay comes back, I think you will see Klay guarding more forwards and Wiggins handling the most dangerous guards.

That's why I think GP2 has an outside shot at making the roster. His defense is the best they have against high-scoring guards, of which there are many in the league. But we'll see, roster spots are scarce.

[GSWFan1994]

I just hope this is not a Andre Roberson-type situation, where he keeps having setback after setback.