Klay Thompson

Klay Thompson
SG/SF - 6’7, 215lbs - 28 years old - 7 years of experience

Yet another 20 points per game, 2 dribbles per game season for Klay Thompson, who this year led the Warriors in minutes played, both per game and in total. He is a highly reliable player, who rides that reliability, consistency and deliberately limited package of skills to perennial All-Star status.

Somehow, Klay never seems to get tired or significantly injured. Despite being out there being active, running around off the ball, trying to get open for his patented jump shots, and taking on the most physically gruelling defensive match up the opposition can throw at him every night, Klay is a workhorse for his team and money in the bank. It is almost impossible to be a better glue guy than Thompson is to these Warriors. Indeed, he is the rare All-Star calibre role player, which is in no way here intended as a pejorative.

After next season, Klay Thompson enters unrestricted free agency. At some point, the Warriors will have to dismantle this core that has gotten them so far, due to ageing, injury or expense. But Klay Thompson must not be a casualty of this process next year. He is too damn important.

Player Plan: One year and $18,988,725 remaining, then headed to free agency that will require a pay rise. Do what you have to do to make this new contract less than the max, and to free up enough payroll elsewhere to keep him.

Klay Thompson
SG/SF, 6’7, 215lbs, 27 years old, 6 years of experience

Doing a wonderful job of single-handedly pointing out the limitations of the DBPM stat (cited liberally in this manifesto anyway) by recording the highest DBPM on his team despite how absolutely ridiculously good his man-t-man defence on opposing guards can be, and was against Kyrie Irving in the NBA Finals. Then again, this also speaks to the fact that he does less off-the-ball defensive work than the rest of his team. How much of that is by design, I leave to others to tell me.

Player Plan: Two years remaining at circa. $37.8 million. For a player who never passes, he’s damn good.

Pick 11: Addressing their self-diagnosed problem of a lack of size in the backcourt, Golden State drafts sizey wing Klay Thompson out of Washington State, Mychal's son. Stu Scott insists the two look alike. He could not be more wrong.

Thompson is the right pick, a good fit and great value for Golden State. He should be the best two guard in the draft, and projects somewhere like Rip Hamilton and Mike Dunleavy. But where did all the good shooting guards go?

Klay Thompson - Thompson is zinging up draft boards at the moment, and may go as high as the top 10. In a draft short of wing shooters with size - as we'll soon see - Thompson is one of the best, and one of the view with an all-around game. He has very good size for the position, and is a smooth, sufficient if not explosive athlete. Thompson can realistically function as the secondary ball handler, and even if his own halfcourt shot creation abilities are rather mediocre outside of the basic pick and roll set, he has good passing vision and skill. He can make all kinds of jumpshots - spotting up, pulling up, contested and coming off of screens, not yet an elite shooter, but certainly a good one.

Defensively, his underwhelming athleticism and aversion to contact are problems, but at least he offers the size. Depending on how this plays out, Klay Thompson might have Kyle Korver potential, or he may have Rip Hamilton potential. The truth, inevitably, will be somewhere in between. It rather depends on where he lands and who he lands with.