SAN FRANCISCO -- The Golden State Warriors have officially ruled out Klay Thompson for the season as he continues to rehab a torn left ACL suffered in June.
"This is what I expected from the beginning given the severity of the injury," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Thursday night's game against the Houston Rockets. "And the normal timetable [for recovery], and so here we are. It's no surprise."
Thompson initially suffered the injury on June 13, 2019, during Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. He had surgery July 2.
The Warriors' announcement doesn't come as a surprise; Kerr had hinted at this outcome since the beginning of the training camp. Kerr noted that the Warriors' medical staff ultimately made the final call and that Thompson remains on track to be ready for the start of the 2020-21 season.
Kerr also said the possibility of Thompson playing for Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics hasn't been ruled out yet.
"It's not off the table," the coach said. "It's still a possibility. We haven't really discussed it. I think the [Olympic] team meets in July, so it's still quite a ways away. But it's really not anything we're discussing at this point. It's still a possibility ... obviously his health is the No. 1 concern, and so we'll kind of cross that bridge when we come to it."
Thompson, who helped Team USA win a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has been open about wanting to represent the Americans again, especially with Kerr now an assistant on Gregg Popovich's staff. But that decision won't come for another several months as the Warriors keep a close eye on Thompson's recovery.
In the meantime, Kerr is happy to see the All-Star swingman's progress and watch him shooting around with his younger teammates on the practice floor in recent weeks.
"Klay was expecting this," Kerr said. "It's been a very frustrating year for Klay, but I think he's almost out of the woods. He's a couple months away from this season ending and moving towards a summer of preparing for the next season with his teammates. I think that's a much better place for him to be emotionally.
"I've really felt bad for him -- Klay loves to play basketball so much. He loves this game, and it means so much to him. In some ways he's kind of been lost without it. He's been so anxious to be out there on the floor helping his teammates. He sees all these young guys, he sees our struggles, he wants to be out there, but it's been a long haul."