Klay Thompson and his injury was the most heartbreaking story of the off-season. After spending a season out with a brutal ACL tear, Thompson will spend another year on the shelf with an Achilles tear. He was on the court when the same injury took Kevin Durant out for the entirety of last season.

Warriors’ Head Coach Steve Kerr believes that watching KD return this season will inspire Klay to come back strong next season.

“Yeah, for sure. We want Kevin to get back to the level where he was prior to that injury. It’s great to see him healthy and playing again, enjoying the game. For Klay, it is devastating.

“He loves the game so much and to miss an entire season, to look forward to the next year which he did all last year. And anticipating being back out, and then all of a sudden going through the exact same thing with another season-ending injury… We are all just feeling really sad for Klay, but it will inspire him. I’m sure.”

Klay Thompson: How will his return be?

We saw KD return seemingly unaffected from his devastating knee injury. However, the same situation may not apply to Klay, who doesn’t have the same physical gifts as KD. KD is nearly seven-foot-tall with elite shooting ability. Thompson has elite shooting ability, but there is a lot more GSW get out of him on the court.

An ACL and Achilles’ injury will definitely hurt Klay’s defensive output. Klay became known as one of the best perimeter guards in the NBA, a skill that will diminish because of his injury history. However, nothing can change the ability that Klay has to go on extreme scoring runs. He is as close to a torch as you can get in basketball.

If Klay can rediscover what made his scoring ability so dangerous, he might not face the ill-effects of this injury. However, it would be unfair to expect Thompson to return the same player he was heading into that Finals series against the Toronto Raptors in 2019.