The Golden State Warriors have authoritatively precluded Klay Thompson for the season as he proceeds to recovery a torn left ACL endured in June.

“This is what I expected from the beginning given the severity of the injury,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Thursday night’s game against the Houston Rockets. “And the normal timetable [for recovery], and so here we are. It’s no surprise.”

Thompson at first endured the injury on June 13, 2019, during Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. He had surgery on July 2.

The Warriors’ declaration doesn’t come as amazement; Kerr had hinted at this result since the start of the training camp. Kerr noticed that the Warriors’ medical staff, at last, made the final call and that Thompson stays on track to be prepared for the beginning of the 2020-21 season.

mpics hasn’t been precluded at this point.

“It’s not off the table,” the coach said. “It’s still a possibility. We haven’t discussed it. I think the [Olympic] team meets in July, so it’s still quite a ways away. But it’s not anything we’re discussing at this point. It’s still a possibility … his health is the No. 1 concern, and so we’ll kind of cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Thompson, who helped Team USA win a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has been open about wanting to represent the Americans once more, particularly with Kerr now an aide on Gregg Popovich’s staff. In any case, that decision won’t desire an additional a while as the Warriors watch out for Thompson’s recuperation.

Meanwhile, Kerr is happy to see the All-Star swingman’s progress and watch him shooting around with his more youthful colleagues on the practice floor in recent weeks.

“Klay was expecting this,” Kerr said. “It’s been a very frustrating year for Klay, but I think he’s almost out of the woods. He’s a couple of months away from this season-ending and moving towards a summer of preparing for the next season with his teammates. I think that’s a much better place for him to be emotional.

“I’ve felt bad for him — Klay loves to play basketball so much. He loves this game, and it means so much to him. In some ways, he’s kind of been lost without it. He’s been so anxious to be out there on the floor helping his teammates. He sees all these young guys, he sees our struggles, he wants to be out there, but it’s been a long haul.”