After a labor that began in June 2019, with a knee injury during the Finals, Klay Thompson is back to training at full speed with his teammates.
Imagine being Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors, and coaching what he is right now the team with the best NBA record, with the best defense, with the second best attack. The team that most of all passes the ball (first by assists), the first by net rating, the team that started too far behind in the predictions of the 2021-22 season today appears perhaps as the best equipped to get to the bottom and win the title. Here, to this war machine on the two halves add the best two-way player in the entire league: Klay Thompson. A 5-time all-star, a member of the NBA’s best defensive team in 2019, the winner of the 2016 Shooting Match 3, a 3-time NBA champion who had a serious double cruciate ligament injury in his knee denied the possibility of continue to write the history of modern basketball in that perfect creature that was the Golden State Warriors.
All this will soon become reality. The hardest to digest for the other 29 NBA franchises. After a labor that began even at the 2019 Finals, in fact, the guard is ready to return. In these hours, the Golden State medical staff gave the definitive ok to training with physical contacts, and therefore no more shooting sessions and ad hoc game situations, but 5 against 5 across the board for the entire session, to catch your breath and legs and go back to acquiring that confidence in the individual movements that, to tell the truth, Klay never seems to have lost.
The goal: “I want to win the ring”
Immediately after the first training session, Klay was interviewed by the media present immediately appearing in a good mood and optimistic about his imminent return to the field, which everyone seems to be certain in about a month, in conjunction with Christmas Day: “There are no words to explain how grateful I am to be able to play basketball again. I want to go back to the player I was immediately, one of the best in the world. We can win the title, the record is 15-2, it’s a good sign. our defense is in the top 3 of the league along with our offense. And just think, I’m not here yet! Think about it … I’ve never been so motivated and my goal is to win the ring“. Steve Kerr preferred to be more cautious: “There is still no fixed target date. There are so many weeks ahead, Klay will be able to train and resume his optimal form. After all this, we will have a date. I have not yet thought about how I will deploy him but I will obviously be a starter. The challenge is to create balanced rotations between all players on the roster“
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Golden State prepares for monstrous rotations
In a team where, currently, ben eleven players are used for at least 14 minutes per game, with rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody not yet involved in the best way and the second choice 2020 James Wiseman never entered the field, adding a star of the level of Klay Thompson is in all respects equivalent to intervening on the market from an already privileged position of best NBA team records in hand, and buy one of the players most capable of affecting the two halves. Granting him the opportunity to re-enter the team mechanisms gradually but aware that, precisely due to the type of basketball expressed over the years, the guard will not generate any problems in the distribution of possessions since trigger it on the drains will be the only looming for the companions, without providing for any isolation or long possessions dedicated to him.
A challenge so to speak, since Thompson represents with Curry and Draymond Green the backbone of the team that has already won 3 NBA titles. With the development of role players such as Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole and the addition of experienced men already very useful to the cause such as Andre Iguodala, Nemanja Bjelica, Otto Porter Jr and Gary Payton II, it is clear how Steve Kerr will have monstre rotations with practically 3 quintets to use . A prospect that excites the Warriors fans and, rightly, scares the rest of the league.
