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Klay Thompson is set to come back before the end of next season. The Warriors saw Thompson go down in Game 6 of the NBA Finals with a torn right ACL a game after Kevin Durant tore his right Achilles, in a pairing of cataclysmic injuries. Durant is fully expected to miss all of next season with the torn Achilles, an injury which has often been deemed the worst possible injury an NBA player can suffer.
DeMarcus Cousins showed glimpses of his old self in his recovery from a torn Achilles this season, but was evidently not the same, and may not show more consistent flashes until his second year back. Klay Thompson, however, is on course to come back for the Warriors by late next season, before the playoffs after suffering a torn ACL at roughly the same time as Durant.
According to ESPN’s Nick Friedell, “The feeling internally is that he will be back some point February or March kind of as the target dates.”
The NBA regular season ended on April 10 of 2019, but the 2019-20 schedule has not been released, but the league has decided to move the entire schedule back by one week, starting on October 22, according to The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor. This sets up Thompson, if all goes well, to get at least a month of regular season play under his belt before the playoffs start.
The 2019-20 NBA season will move back one week next year and begin October 22, per league sources. This means the playoffs will also begin a week later. The change is to prevent opening night from occurring too early moving forward each year. The FIBA World Cup was also a factor.
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) October 29, 2018