https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/warriors/article/Warriors-believe-Klay-Thompson-s-return-will-16543276.php

Klay Thompson thinks he’ll be cleared for full-contact practice close to the one-year anniversary of his Nov. 25 Achilles surgery.

Doctors say it then will take the five-time All-Star another four to six weeks to regain his conditioning and faith in his right leg.

The Warriors hope that whenever Thompson returns to the lineup, it will put them back into title contention.

“Everybody says it, but we really believe that we’re a championship-caliber team,” Warriors point guard Stephen Curry said. “We understand that we have experience, we have our core and we have our young guys who are extremely talented, with amazing upside and work ethic that hopefully can provide a lot for us this year. But the perfect recipe is to put all of that together where, if things go your way toward the end of the season, you’re confidently in that (championship) conversation.

“When we get into the playoffs, we know we’re a tough team to beat, and we just want to be in that conversation.”

The Warriors haven’t been part of that conversation the past two seasons, missing the playoffs each year and going a combined 54-83 (.394). Thompson missed 2019-20 with a torn left anterior cruciate ligament and last season with a ruptured Achilles.

Since Thompson last played June 13, 2019 — the end of the Warriors’ five straight trips to the NBA Finals — Golden State has missed his all-league defense, all-world shooting and all-galaxy “spurt-ability.”

Thompson set the NBA record for points in a quarter with 37 in a 2015 game against Sacramento and made a league-best 14 3-pointers in a game in 2018 at Chicago. He’s the only player in history to score 60 points in less than 30 minutes (in 2016 against Indiana).

“We have to survive, obviously, the first couple of months with Klay being out,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “We’ve got to tread water early and try to incorporate the new guys in pretty quickly and establish ourselves at both ends.”

How exactly the Warriors will do that started to take shape at the end of last season when injuries forced them to play small during a 15-5 closing run. They’re still small, as 7-footer James Wiseman won’t have his meniscus surgery reevaluated again until Nov. 1 and could take another four to six weeks to be game ready.
Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson gives instructions from bench while team plays Denver Nuggets in 1st quarter during NBA preseason game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.

Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson gives instructions from bench while team plays Denver Nuggets in 1st quarter during NBA preseason game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.
Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

But Golden State is more balanced and has more depth after signing Nemanja Bjelica, Andre Iguodala and Otto Porter Jr. to minimum contracts and drafting Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody in the lottery.

Oh, and the Warriors have got a lot more shooting.

The Warriors launched an eye-popping 53.2 3-pointers per game during the preseason. Utah led the league with 43 per game last season, and Houston set the NBA record with 45.4 in 2018-19.

“Everybody is always saying: ‘How are they going to guard bigger guys?’ But how are bigger guys going to guard us?” Warriors forward Juan Toscano-Anderson said. “You’ve got to find your advantages, and I think our advantages are that we can play really fast, we’re trying to get shots up and we’re very dynamic. I honestly think it works to our advantage.”

The Warriors’ roster ranges widely in age, from Kuminga, who turned 19 this month, to Iguodala, who will turn 38 in January. Working behind the scenes with director of team operations Eric Housen during the preseason, Iguodala already had his locker stall moved next to Kuminga’s as the team searches to build chemistry.

The team’s vocal leader, forward Draymond Green, has been skeptical about the front office’s decision to try the mix of promising picks with champions. But the power forward seems to be coming around on the idea as he has started to get to know the youngsters.
Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson ties his shoes before the team's preseason NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson ties his shoes before the team's preseason NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

“You can’t just walk into somebody’s face and say: ‘You need to trust me, because I’ve done X, Y and Z,’” Green said. “Quite frankly, I didn’t come into this league, like: ‘Oh, man, you’ve done this. I respect you.’ No, you’ve got to earn my respect. I don’t give a f— what you’ve done. I approach everything like that. Just because I’m Draymond and have done what I’ve done, that does not earn their respect.

“Respect has to be earned, and trust has to be earned.”

The respect- and trust-earning process should be complete by the time Thompson returns to a game in December or January.

Warriors owner Joe Lacob said Thompson’s return will get the “longest and loudest ovation in the history of Chase Center,” and Curry appeared to get emotional when he considered the moment his backcourt mate walks out of the tunnel.

“I’m sure it’s going to be amazing,” Curry said. “Whatever other adjectives you can throw in there are probably not going to do it justice, at all.”