Warriors guard Klay Thompson tore his left ACL on June 13 during Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.

On July 2, the five-time All-Star underwent surgery to repair the ligament.

He is expected to return in about seven months:

Agent Greg Lawrence emphasizes recovery window of 5-to-7 months after Thompson's ACL surgery is tilted toward back end of that timetable: "While we are optimistic on a return as quickly as possible, Klay and the team are committed to taking the necessary time with the process." https://t.co/JeSVUHWP3C — Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2019

"Klay is a guy who's gonna work hard to come back," Mychal Thompson said Monday afternoon on KNBR 680. "Everybody heals differently but he's gonna work really hard to come back next season.

"They're gonna be monitoring him really closely. Klay will let them know how he feels. They'll put him through a million paces and all kinds of drills -- 5-on-5 drills -- before he's allowed to play again.

'You can trust the Warriors training staff and team doctors. Medicine and rehab is so advanced that everybody will know if he's ready to go or not."

Klay signed a five-year max contract worth just under $190 million, and there's no way the Dubs will rush him back whatsoever.

That means he'll likely miss the start of the season in a now-loaded Western Conference. Now that the dust has settled following a crazy free-agent period, who is the team to beat?

"The Lakers are back to being the favorites to win the title again," Mychal declared. "I've been hearing about how the Clippers are the best team. If it was a 2-on-2 game, obviously everybody out there would take LeBron and AD over Kawhi and Paul George.

"The Lakers have a better roster. Better players ... the Lakers are loaded. They're the best two teams in the West right now. I'm aleady expecting the Western Conference finals to be played in Staples Center -- unless Klay comes back and he's healthy and he's 100 percent to go, and then the Warriors are right back in the mix."

It's hard to disagree with anything Mychal said. Nobody will want to face the Dubs in mid-April if Klay is back and the rest of the roster is completely healthy.

And don't worry Dub Nation -- Mychal is not one of the people predicting the Warriors will miss the playoffs.

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"Oklahoma City is gonna be the only team that's gonna drop out of the top eight," he said. "All the other seven teams that qualified for the playoffs last year are gonna be right back in it."

Very early prediction on the Western Conference playoff teams (in no particular order):

-Clippers

-Lakers

-Warriors

-Jazz

-Rockets

-Nuggets

-Spurs

-Blazers

(sorry Pelicans, Mavericks, Kings) — Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) July 6, 2019

Once again, yours truly agrees with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft.

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