Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson underwent surgery in Los Angeles today to repair his torn right Achilles, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who says the five-time All-Star is expected to make a full recovery (Twitter links).
After missing the entire 2019/20 season while recovering from a torn left ACL, Thompson had been on track to return for opening night next month, but tore his Achilles last week during a workout in Southern California. As a result, he’ll be sidelined for his second consecutive full season and will go more than two years between NBA appearances.
The Warriors acquired Kelly Oubre in a trade with the Thunder and added Kent Bazemore in free agency in an effort to replenish their depth on the wing in the wake of Thompson’s devastating season-ending injury.
The team also applied for a disabled player exception in response to Thompson’s injury. Assuming it’s approved, which it should be, the exception would be worth approximately $9.3MM and would allow the team to acquire a player without using cap room.
A disabled player exception can be used to sign a free agent, to acquire a player in a trade, or to claim a player off waivers, but it can only be used on one player. Additionally, it can only be used to sign a player to a one-year deal — or to trade for or claim a player in the final year of his contract.
It will be interesting to see who the Warriors Target for that injured player exception ( I’m sure they’ll be changing the name from disabled player exception soon.)
I’ll have to look at the list of 2021 free agents this website provides to see who’s in there last year of their contract. There’s not too much available on this year’s free agent list. But then again that will be tough because in a trade the Warriors will have to give up something yet again. Any one of significance will be costly. Don’t want to give away any more first round picks do they?
Rumor has it they are going to wait before using it. Get a player closer to the trade deadline for a playoff run.
I’ve never heard of a surgery NOT being successful or of it being said the player WASNT expected to make a full recovery. Has anyone heard of anything like that?
Andrew bogut’s knee surgeries. But I guess you’re right because we didn’t hear about it until after the fact that his microsurgery or micro fracture or whatever it’s called did not go well. He had to have a second surgery after opening night to fix what the first surgery didn’t do properly.
God bless Klay. Wishing you full recovery. I’m wondering what Warriors will do too. They could wait till TD to use it.
Strike 1, Clay gets injured. Strike 2, Curry gets injured. 2nd pick in the draft, the count evens out, and boom strike 3, Clay injured again. I only hope we never have to hear about Strike Four.
I’m sure he’s lurking. Does great for the ego of the Warriors fan when we hear somebody say we’re going to win the next five championships. Glass half full.. and 45 gallon drum overflowing next to it.
I don’t expect their #2 pick to do much for them next season.
Who knows if Klay will be ready to go at the start of the 2021 season, but I think we may get a preview of what to expect with KD making his comeback next month. The expectations in Brooklyn are ridiculously high and they’re just setting themselves up for a letdown.
Both KD & Klay are excellent shooters and they never relied only on a raw athleticism so they should be good on that end. Decline might be seen on the other end.