Boat Captain Klay gives update on when he hopes to return

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It has been over two years since we last saw Klay Thompson suit up in an NBA game.

After missing two consecutive seasons due to a torn ACL and a torn Achilles, the Warriors plan to get the star shooting guard back at some point next season.

Thompson hopes that return can be sooner rather than later after the Warriors missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons.

"I plan on ... hopefully early next season," Thompson said Friday when asked when he would return while doing Instagram Live from his boat. "I mean, the Achilles is like a 12-month recovery phase. But I also have to factor in my left knee because I don't want to come back and be half myself, you know what I'm saying? Recovery is going, through. It's slow. The Achilles is tedious."

Thompson tore his left ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. He was set to return this past season before tearing his Achilles in November.

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While the Warriors are anxious for Thompson to return and share the floor with Steph Curry and Draymond Green again, they are going to be cautious with Thompson's return.

"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," president of basketball operations Bob 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.

"We're not going to throw him out there if he's not ready, and he's doing everything he can to get back. I want to talk about Klay a lot, but I'm reluctant because I don't want to use that as an excuse. I don't want people to think 'well when Klay comes back everything is going to be great.' As great as he is and it will help a lot, we have to look at our team and say, Klay will be a huge addition but there's other areas where we need to improve on as well, but I don't know when exactly it will be."

The Warriors greatly missed Thompson on both ends of the floor this past season. But his absence was especially felt on offense as defenses were able to send two and three defenders at Curry with the Warriors lacking the proper floor-spacers to punish them.

The Warriors are entering a crucial offseason in which they must find a way to put the necessary pieces around Thompson, Curry and Green to help them compete for a title. The Warriors have a lot of work to do, but Thompson's healthy return is the biggest piece of the 2021-22 puzzle for Golden State.

"That's the plan ... 2022 Champs," Thompson said.

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