ONE WEEK shy of a year after Klay Thompson tore his left anterior cruciate ligament, the Golden State Warriors remain uncertain about whether he is fully healthy.

Golden State general manager Bob Myers addressed Thompson’s status Monday in a conference call with reporters.

“I think we’ve got to take a look at him when we see him. There’s different versions of 100 percent,” Myers said. “One-hundred percent for you or me with being able to walk around the street, that’s not 100 percent for a basketball player playing basketball.

“Until we kind of test him and see him, and start him in one-on-one and two-on-two work — the pandemic hasn’t allowed him that opportunity to do those type of things — there’s no rush, clearly.”

The latter comment is a reference to the fact that the Warriors’ season is over. Golden State is one of eight NBA teams that will not return to action when play resumes this summer at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida.

When the league suspended the season on March 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Warriors owned the NBA’s worst record at 15-50. Their season was ruined by the absence of their backcourt stars, Thompson, who was hurt in the last game of the 2019 NBA Finals, and Stephen Curry, who played in just five of the teams’ 65 games due to a broken left hand.

Thompson exited Game 6 of the Finals against the Toronto Raptors in the third quarter due to the knee injury. He still wound up as the game’s high scorer with 30 points.

According to multiple media reports, Thompson did much of his recent rehab work at his Southern California home. He was back in Northern California on Wednesday, when he and Warriors teammates Curry, Damion Lee and Kevon Looney took part in a protest walk in Oakland, California, organized by another Golden State player, Juan Toscano-Anderson.

The rally was one of many held worldwide in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Thompson walked the full three-plus-mile path around Lake Merritt and didn’t appear to be in pain or discomfort, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“As far as I’ve heard, he’s been recovering fine,” Myers said. “There hasn’t been a setback. But one thing that has been a little difficult the last couple of months has been our ability to see those things as much as you might normally would.”

Thompson, 30, is a three-time NBA champion and five-time All-Star. He owns career averages of 19.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

REPLACEMENT PLAYERS
Meanwhile, NBA teams will be permitted to carry replacement players who can be added to the active roster in the event of a positive COVID-19 test, ESPN reported.

If a player on the roster tests positive for the coronavirus, they will be quarantined and teammates will be tested.

To fill the vacant roster spot of the player testing positive, a “replacement player” can be called up.

Players on two-way contracts would also be eligible to join the active roster if a team loses a player to injury.

Those rules are yet to be fully approved as the NBA modifies protocol and roster management regulation when the season resumes July 31. — Reuters

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