Klay Thompson Could Apparently Play 25-30 Minutes Right Now But Wants ‘To Be Conditioned At A Very High Level’

Klay Thompson is apparently on track to make his return to action sometime soon. Thompson suffered a torn ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals, which cost him the entirety of the 2019-20 season, and as he was preparing to return in time for the start of 2020-21, the Golden State Warriors’ standout tore his achilles.

As such, it’s been a minute since we’ve seen one of the greatest shooters in league history suit up for the Dubs. According to a new report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, we could actually see Thompson take the floor right now if he felt like it. However, Thompson has a pretty interesting reason for not taking the floor right now.

“The timeline for Klay Thompson remains largely the same,” Wojnarowski said. “Either December 20, 23, ahead of Christmas, or perhaps just after Christmas. But in talking to his agent, Greg Lawrence with Wasserman Media today, he brought up a great point about how Klay Thompson is handling his rehab. And that is, listen, right now, as Lawrence said to me, he could play 25, 30 minutes in an NBA game. He’s ready to do that.

“But what Klay wants to be able to do when he comes back is to be conditioned at a very high level, and jump into a Warrior team that he doesn’t want to have to work himself back into great condition,” Wojnarowski continued. “He wants to be in great condition knowing, listen, there’s gonna be 50+ regular season games for him, and perhaps as many as 20+ postseason games with the championship aspirations of these Warriors.”

Wojnarowski went on to say that people around the Warriors believe Thompson’s rehab work has made him ready for “the NBA grind of a four night a week schedule.” The good news for Golden State is that it can afford to let Thompson take all the time he needs — the team sits 18-3, the second-best record in the league behind only the Phoenix Suns.