From an article: "Thompson tore his left ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals on June 13 and underwent surgery on July 2. The 2019-20 NBA All-Star Game will take place Feb. 16 in Chicago. The All-Star break would be at the 7 1/2-month mark since Thompson's surgery. "I know the ACL is a 10-to-12 month injury but if I keep working hard, hopefully, I'll be on the front end of that," Thompson said. Ten months would put Thompson's return at some point in April and 12 months obviously would keep him out for the entire 2019-20 season. The Warriors and their fans are hoping Thompson can return in late February or early March, giving him enough time to get into game shape before the playoffs start." Torn acl is nothing to sneeze at.
If Detroit is outside of playoff contention come the trade deadline and Nurk is back and competitive. I could see us getting Blake Griffin for Whiteside and a first (Detroit would likely buyout Whiteside or get a third team involved). That would make our team really tough to defend. I don't see any team matching our 1st through 4th scoring options with Dame, Blake, CJ and Nurk. We would also be deep with both Ant and Zach coming off the bench.
I think all the top western conference teams have a lot of question marks... Utah, do they have the depth. Does Conley stay healthy (he's got an extensive injury history). Lakers, how well do they gel, does AD stay healthy, how many more years does LBJ have as a superstar. Clippers, Paul George's health, how do they gel, how much will they use load management. Blazers a ton of new parts to fit in, and when does Nurk come back. They'll be relying a lot on two young unproven guys in Zach and Simons. Denver, is probably the most stable of all of them. Houston there's only one ball... GS how does Russell fit in, when is Klay back, Curry's ankles. In terms of OKC... If this was a 2-3 year younger version of CP3 I'd agree, but he's slowing down noticeably, he's always hurt. I think it's really premature at this point to think any of them have a clear leg up on the others.
