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What was supposed to be a night full of possibilities for the Golden State Warriors turned out to be a disaster. Armed with the No. 2 overall pick in Wednesday’s draft and all the options that came with it, all optimism went out the window when it emerged that Klay Thompson, as he increased his workouts in Southern California with the fast-paced season 2020-21. approaching, he had suffered a potentially devastating injury. The team had his worst confirmed fears on Thursday, that Thompson will miss all next season with a torn right Achilles tendon.
You want to talk about a punch to the stomach.
This has the makings of a knockout.
Thompson, who of course missed all of last season after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals, underwent imaging Thursday to determine the exact injury and severity. But the word travels fast on this kind of thing. When players across the league sent prayers on Wednesday night, we knew it wasn’t good.
Beyond feeling bad for Thompson, one of the NBA’s most beloved players and a guy who truly loves to play basketball, the first question was whether this breaking news could affect the way the Warriors approached the draft. . It didn’t seem like it, as they took the player they’ve been constantly connected to throughout the draft process in James Wiseman.
It should have been a night of celebration for the Warriors, who were hoping to be back in the championship contest with Steph Curry and Thompson recovered and Wiseman as the missing big man. Now that Thompson has ruptured his Achilles tendon, all of that has gone out the window.
And now that? With Thompson out for the season: Will the Warriors get more aggressive in the exchange market to try to replace Thompson, to the extent they can, anytime soon? Will they consider trading the Wolves’ 2021 first-round pick, which they acquired in the D’Angelo Russell trade and could finish in the top five in a stacked draft class, for a ready-to-wear collaborator? Will they dare to put Wiseman in a deal if it means, say, a player like Marcus Smart? Will they enter Danilo Gallinari’s party? Will they think about eating Eric Gordon’s contract for a guy who can score in Thompson’s absence and provide depth upon his return?
Late Wednesday night, Warriors general manager Bob Myers said that even before Thompson’s injury, the Warriors’ ownership had given him a “green light” to use the $ 17 trade exception. million that came as a result of the 2019 deal that sent Andre Iguodala to Memphis. , and that he would actually use that money to gain wing depth if the right opportunity arose, as reported by Marc J. Spears from The Undefeated.
That is not an easy decision for Warriors management. As a team that operates above the luxury tax line, that $ 17 million could cost Golden State more than $ 50 million, depending on what other moves on the list they make. In all, the Warriors could be saddled with a $ 350 million roster that, without Thompson, probably wouldn’t be able to compete for a championship – a figure that becomes even more difficult to swallow in a year in which gate revenue could get completely lost without the fans. in attendance.
There is simply no way to sugarcoat this. With Thompson now out with a torn Achilles, the Warriors could have gone from a top-three or top-four title contender to a team that might not make the playoffs in a fully loaded Western Conference. Could the Warriors be willing to subtly kick another season for a better draft pick in a monster class of 2021, which they could combine with the Minnesota pick, and perhaps Wiseman, to lay a rock-solid foundation for him. future?
It is difficult to imagine. Once again, Curry will turn 33 before the end of next season. He is a once in a lifetime player. Like a team with LeBron James, conventional wisdom would suggest that you exhaust that player for every bit of championship contention he’s worth and worry about the future – well, the future. This is an almost unbelievably fine line for the Warriors to navigate. Suddenly, they are trying to plan for the present and the future at the same time, and one of the players who was supposed to be a bridge between the two has just suffered an injury that could, without exaggeration, change the course of his career and the the entire franchise forever.
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