Warriors’ Klay Thompson Could Return Before Christmas

The Warriors are off to a hot start and expect to be even better once Klay Thompson takes the court.

So that leads us to even better news for the Warriors — Thompson could return before Christmas, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

“I’m told if he continues on his current course right now in rehab, that a target date for his return will be set probably within the next couple weeks,” Wojnarowski said on the “NBA Countdown” show, via RealGM. “And it could be … there’s optimism it could be as soon as December 20, December 23.”

This follows comments from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who said he has hears Thompson is progressing well in workouts.

Thompson is working his way back from a ruptured Achilles, suffered just before the 2020 draft, and keeping him out all of last season. That injury followed a torn ACL, suffered in the 2019 Finals, when Thompson appeared in his last game.

“The whispers around the league right now about Klay Thompson … they say he looks good,” Windhorst said on ESPN, via Real GM. “There is a real confidence in there that, especially by the end of the season, that Klay is going to be BACK back.”

Thompson, 31, is 6-foot-6 and averaged 21.5 points in his last season of 2018-19. He had been on a run of five straight seasons of averaging at least 20 points when the first injury occurred.

That said, given his age and the severity of the injuries, there are some doubts as to whether he’ll be able to return to near the player he once was. But as many will say, a potentially slowed Thompson is better than no Thompson.

“The Warriors will go on a road trip in mid-December, and at that point, if Klay continues on this track, he’d go down and play with the Warriors’ G League team,” Wojnarowski said. “And the idea is, and the hope is, they’ll have him back perhaps prior to Christmas.”