LAS VEGAS - Alex Toohey’s summer league return has looked a lot different from the one he probably imagined when the Warriors drafted him. He’s not scrimmaging yet.
He’s not flying around in live action. But after a knee injury that knocked him off course for months, just being back in the building feels like a meaningful step.
The 22-year-old forward has been with Golden State since the California Classic opened at Chase Center on July 3, and on Friday at the Las Vegas Basketball Center, he was in the middle of individual defensive work and dribbling drills while the rest of the Warriors scrimmaged elsewhere. He showed up in a white Warriors T-shirt, blue gym shorts and bright orange sneakers, moving through the kind of controlled work that marks the next phase of a long rehab.
That road has been slow and, at times, painfully repetitive. Toohey was bedridden for six weeks after surgery in December to repair cartilage in his left knee, unable to move his left leg. With nowhere to go and plenty of time to fill, he turned to books.
“The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” were among his favorites, along with Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
“I want to read all the books that people have heard of,” Toohey told the Bay Area News Group last week. “I feel like there are a lot of books that I’d be like, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of that, but I haven’t got to reading it.’ So obviously there are a lot of books out there in the world, but I’ve got a lot of time, so I’m gonna slowly chip away at them.”
That kind of downtime is fading now. Eight months after the operation, Toohey said the plan is to ramp things up soon, and he can feel the finish line getting closer. He’s not in live action yet, but the workouts are no longer limited to upper-body sessions and long stretches in the weight room.
“I’m not quite doing live stuff yet,” Toohey said. “But I think the plan is to ramp it up pretty quickly from here on out.
So the days go a lot quicker. A lot quicker when I can do some on-court activity than when I was just doing upper body and just sitting in the weight room all day.”
Summer league coach Khalid Robinson said Toohey’s presence has mattered, especially because rehab can be such a lonely grind. Toohey has been part of film sessions, asking questions and staying engaged even while he’s not available to play.
“Rehab is a very isolating existence at times because you come in day after day after day, and you’re doing a lot of repetitive things,” Robinson said. “It’s great to have him with the team here.
Alex has been in film sessions, and he asks me and our staff questions. He’s a good teammate, and he has a very uplifting presence about him.”
Robinson also pointed out that Toohey’s work is being done with multiple staffers around him, not in some far-off corner of the gym.
There’s another familiar face in the mix, too. Lachlan Olbrich, Toohey’s former high school roommate and fellow Australian Institute of Sport alum, is also trying to carve out a place with the Warriors.
“I love Toohey,” Olbrich said. “Always good to have familiar faces around.”
Toohey’s path to this point started long before surgery. Coming out of Australia, the 6-foot-8 prospect was known as a versatile international talent, but the knee issue had already begun to show itself during the pre-draft process. He worked out for 17 teams, piling up flights and workouts with little chance to recover.
By the time he landed with the Warriors as the No. 52 pick in the draft last July, the pain in his left knee had already become hard to ignore. During the 2025 summer league, he felt like he had only one usable left leg.
He missed all of preseason, then played two games for Santa Cruz in the G League before deciding on surgery. Golden State released him after that.
Toohey doesn’t second-guess the choice.
“I just didn’t feel like myself and didn’t play like myself,” Toohey said. “I’d rather try and fix it and come back healthy than try and play with it at like 60 or 70 percent.”
He split his rehab between Australia and the United States, staying in contact with Warriors teammates and the medical staff along the way. Even after the team waived him in December, the connection didn’t disappear.
“I kind of mixed it up, and I’m the kind of guy that likes to change the scenery,” Toohey said. “So wherever I am, I just try and put my head down and work on my knee. But I’ve had a great supporting cast around me, getting me back to 100 percent.”
Being back with Golden State for summer league made sense on both sides. Toohey has remained a Warriors fan through it all, celebrating their wins and feeling the sting of their injuries, including the severe knee issues suffered by Moses Moody and Jimmy Butler.
Now he’s had a chance to talk with Moody about the recovery process.
“I got to kind of speak to (Moses) about the injury, and then I’m sure when I see Jimmy next time, we’ll be able to speak about that recovery,” Toohey said.
Toohey believes he could be ready for full-contact drills and practices by the start of the NBA season in October. Even then, a healthy return won’t guarantee him a roster spot, despite Golden State’s thin wing depth outside of Yaxel Lendeborg.
For now, he’s keeping the focus narrow.
“I’ve just got to keep my head down and take it one day at a time,” Toohey said. “Has been pretty much been the mantra for this whole thing. There are good days, there are bad days, but wherever I am, just kind of keep my options open and just be a learner.”
In Other News...
Warriors Fans Just Got A Real Sign On LeBron Watch
LeBron James has become the latest star whose future is drawing leaguewide attention, and Warriors fans have reason to pay close attention to the noise around him. The Lakers forward was recently spotted on a golf outing with Draymond Green and Kevin Hart, a setting that at least put the two longtime rivals in the same orbit at a time when James is weighing his next move.
Other teams are also in the mix, with the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers mentioned among the possibilities, but no official decision has been announced. For Golden State, the intrigue is obvious: any conversation involving James and Green is going to linger, especially when the summer market is still wide open and the biggest name on it has not tipped his hand. [Read more 🡒]
This Wild 2017 Warriors Afterparty Story Feels So Perfectly Klay
A new bit of 2017 Warriors lore surfaced this week, and it has the kind of loose, slightly surreal energy that always seemed to follow Klay Thompson around a championship run. Blake Anderson, best known from Workaholics, looked back on ending up at Golden States official title afterparty after the Warriors beat the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, a night that still sits comfortably inside the franchises golden era and one of Thompsons four rings before his 2024 departure.
Anderson said the whole thing began with Thompson in a black SUV, then turned into an invitation into the celebration itself, with Anderson and his brother suddenly part of the scene. The detail that really sells it, though, is the one only Klay could provide: Thompson was close enough to be touched, and his hat was still wet with champagne. It is the sort of small, weirdly specific memory that makes the story feel less like a celebrity anecdote and more like a perfectly Klay moment that still hasnt lost its shine. [Read more 🡒]