Warriors rule Klay Thompson out for the year

The Golden State Warriors have reportedly made it official, and ruled Klay Thompson out for the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season. The news was first reported by Marc Stein of The New York Times, and the team has since released a statement.

Thompson tore his ACL in Game 6 of the NBA Finals back in June. It was always a bit of a longshot that he would return this season, but the five-time All-Star had expressed optimism that he might be back by March or so.

Turns out that’s not the case. Though with the Warriors firmly out of the playoff picture, there’s also no reason for the team to take any risks with Thompson, especially given the nature of knees. Perhaps Thompson could return if the games were meaningful, but they’re not, so we’ll never know.

It’s certainly not surprising news, as Steve Kerr has been open all year long about expecting Thompson to miss the entire season. Kerr has a way of downplaying things to temper expectations, but in this case it turns out he was just being honest.

Stein also reports that Thompson is not ruling out playing for Team USA during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Thompson is currently on the 44-man preliminary roster for the Olympics, along with teammates Steph Curry and Draymond Green. Steve Kerr is the assistant coach for Team USA.