Many notable NBA players have sustained torn Achilles tendons, as the Warriors fear Kevin Durant might have done on Monday night.

Kobe Bryant famously hit two free throws after his ruptured while playing against the Warriors in 2013 and walked off the court on his own. He had surgery a day later, started rehabilitation immediately and resumed playing eight months later. He played three more years but was plagued by injuries.

He was 34 — four years older than Durant — when he tore his Achilles. There’s plenty of speculation on how Durant’s injury might affect his status in his impending free agency, but he has his relative youth on his side.

Medical advances have increased players’ chances of a successful recovery because surgeries are done with smaller incisions and stronger sutures. Players can start rehab exercise in days.

That wasn’t the case when Elgin Baylor had the same injury in 1970. He was 36 years old when he was hurt and missed 11 months. Patrick Ewing was 36 when he was hurt in 1999. Neither player was the same after his injury.

The research

Historically, players with torn Achilles tendons were more likely to never play again than to return to their pre-injury form.

A 2013 Drexel University study found that seven of the 18 NBA players with Achilles tears between 1988 and 2011 did not return at all. Three came back for just one season. Those who did come back missed an average of 56 games the rest of their career; only eight of them played a second season. Those who were able to keep playing saw their minutes and performances fall markedly.

The Achilles tendon is especially critical for a basketball player because of the need to jump and change direction quickly.

A 2015 CBS Sports study of 14 players who returned from Achilles injuries after 1992 found that their field-goal and three-point shooting percentages dropped dramatically.

The examples

Here are some other notable NBA players who came back from a torn Achilles tendon.

DeMarcus Cousins — Durant, of course, doesn’t have to look far to find somebody who has come back from a torn Achilles. Cousins suffered his in January 2018 with the New Orleans Pelicans. He made his debut with the Warriors a year later and is playing a major role in the Finals.

Cousins can tell Durant all about the rehab process, the seemingly endless hours rebuilding strength in the calf muscles after surgery, the hydrotherapy treatments, weightlifting sessions and calisthenics.

Chauncey Billups — The five-time All-Star tore his Achilles in February 2012, costing the 35-year-old the last 35 games of the season with the Clippers. He returned the following season, but an injured left peroneal tendon limited him in 20 games.

Rudy Gay — The former Grizzlies/Raptors star was hurt while playing for Sacramento in 2017, when he was 30. Now with San Antonio, he hasn’t regained his old form.

Wesley Matthews — The veteran guard was 29 when he was hurt with Portland in 2015. He returned nearly seven months later. In the last four years his numbers have dropped off. He is now with Indiana.

Elton Brand — A two-time All-Star with the Clippers before the injury at age 28 in 2007, Brand didn’t average more than 15 points or 8.3 rebounds in his eight remaining seasons.

He later told an interviewer, “I didn’t have the same explosiveness that I had. … I didn’t have it. I had to change my game a little bit where I jumped off two feet, and I was a little bit slower.”

Dominique Wilkins — On the other hand, Atlanta’s eventual Hall of Famer was 32 at the time of his injury in 1992. When he came back nine months later, he regained his spectacular form and made two more All-NBA teams.

He averaged 29.9 points the year after the injury, second only to Michael Jordan’s 32.6, and was named the NBA’s Comeback Player of the Year.

“When I came back, people had their doubts, they said I was done and my career was over, but I came back and had my best all-around season of my career,” Wilkins said many years later. “It just depends on the person and how driven they are.”

Isiah Thomas — The Pistons great had already decided to retire after the season by the time he was hurt on April 19, 1994, 11 days before his 33rd birthday. It was the last game of a 14-year career that included two NBA titles and 12 All-Star Game appearances.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald