Klay Thompson Was a Warrior
The Mavericks signed the sharpshooter to a three year deal, ending his time in the Bay Area. Thompson was an excellent player, and the dynasty in the Bay doesn't happen without him.
The day the Golden State Warriors became a dynasty might have been the day they decided not to trade Klay Thompson. It is crucial to remember that at one point, some of the Warriors brass thought the way to dynastic glory was giving Thompson away to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love. It was the prevailing thought, a thought that was hard to argue against. Love was coming off of a season where he averaged 26 points per game and 12 rebounds. Thompson had shown that he was an excellent shooter alongside Stephen Curry, but nowhere near the star that he would eventually become, with the championship fearlessness that the Warriors became recognized for. Eventually, the late-great Jerry West, at the time an advisor for the Warriors, threatened to quit if they traded Thompson for Love. West thought that Thompson was the “perfect player” to compliment Curry’s skillset.
West, as he was known to be throughout his illustrious executive career, was right about this. Thompson, whose new deal with the Dallas Mavericks will make his time with the Warriors come to an unceremonious end, became the second “Splash Brother” in Oakland, the coolest version of the dynasty — before the Kevin Durant signing and the move to the Chase Center. Thompson was the close associate to Curry’s main event, allowing Curry to take the most amount of shine while still being a weaponized advantage for the Warriors. Curry would dazzle; Draymond was a defensive anchor, swallowing the opponent's best offensive sets by sheer memory and preperation; but Klay, was like having a tommy gun to spray whenever you felt like it. At six foot seven, he could guard multiple defenders — before his injuries — and score whenever, without making the Warriors lose the unstoppable pace of their offense. Most of his buckets would happen without using much dribbles (a fun joke on NBA Twitter is that Thompson dribbles “like a Republican”). When he got hot, he took over quarters, and broke the will of the opponent.
At their best, the Warriors were so difficult to play against because the barrage of three point shooting could turn a game from a tight one to one that meant that Mo Buckets was on the floor. A halftime lead for the opposition would wither away in a second; it was best if the game was out of reach by the first quarter because the Warriors’s onslaught made the blown lead all the more debilitating. They were never the most disciplined team — something that affected them against the careful genius of LeBron James — but they were certainly the most explosive. Steve Kerr would watch in disbelief as Curry broke the game — ignoring the sets that Kerr designed in the process. That’s what greatness is: the suspension of conventional wisdom from sheer abnormal excellency. Watching the Warriors meant watching blowouts that were overwhelming, especially if you were a curmudgeon that felt that the Warriors were ruining the game. That was led by Thompson, as much as it was Curry.
An example would be his infamous third quarter against the Sacramento Kings in a January game in the 2014-2015 season. Thompson scored 37 points in the third quarter, setting a NBA record for most points in a quarter. When he went on his run, the game was tied 58-58. After nine three's — a few off of staggered screens, a few that he fired in isolation without dribbles — he had the Warriors up 24 points. The Kings were completely out of the game in a span of twelve minutes. Ben McElmore’s hands were on hips, the ultimate sign of distress and discontent.
That was how it went in the Warriors season that year. Blowouts were regular; Klay became a star, a bonafide bucket getter who scored over 40 percent from the three point line. If Curry is the greatest shooter ever, Thompson is literally the second greatest shooter ever. Few players — both active or current — could shoot like he could, even without their feet being set. His shot is a referendum of the power of muscle memory and practice.
It’s terrible, but not surprising, that Thompson will not be a Warrior for life. He seems exasperated with the team, including Draymond Green’s antics, Joe Lacob’s arrogance, and Steve Kerr’s coaching. After a game against the Brooklyn Nets, Thompson looked dejected, after being asked about being benched in the fourth quarter. While Draymond tried to diffuse the situation by saying “I didn’t play in the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals once”, it was clearly a shot to Thompson’s ego. This past season was a funeral of sorts for the Warriors; they struggled to close teams out, struggling to play together under the midst of intense scrutiny. Furthermore, it would be wise to suspect that Thompson won’t return to form with Dallas. He is coming back from ACL and achilles tears; it was time for him to leave the Warriors, and it’s intriguing to see him play with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, but it’s doubtful that he becomes an All-Star again. He’s a part-time starter at most, now. It is the end of an era, an era that included pivotal wins that showed the Warriors’s grit against teams that were supposed to be grittier.
None of those playoff wins were more pivotal than the sixth game against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2016 NBA Playoffs. The Warriors were down 3-2 on the road against a team that was killing them, stealing their lunch money unexpectedly. It was Thompson who was the best player on the floor — against Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant — and it was Thompson who put the 41 points that led the Warriors to victory. OKC was up eight in the fourth, and the Warriors refused to lose. They did that cliche thing — the stale “heart of the champion” talk — that the adults taught me was real, and it was that night.