The Golden State Warriors found themselves in quite the enviable position this summer. Already armed with possibly the best shooter in NBA history in Stephen Curry, the best shooting power forward in the NBA, Kevin Love, was theirs for the taking.
All it would cost them was Klay Thompson, a solid two-way shooting guard, but someone who had yet to make an All-Star team and played at a position where replacements are far easy to find. Surely the Warriors would give him up for arguably the best power forward in the entire league, wouldn’t they?
But the Warriors balked at trading Thompson, a move that was met with surprise and derision by most people outside the Golden State organization, who couldn’t believe the Warriors would choose Thompson over Love. Until this season Thompson was a good defender and a great shooter who did little else offensively. Minnesota eventually moved on, shipping Love to Cleveland for a package led by Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, and the Warriors entered into negotiations with Thompson over a long-term contract extension, eventually inking him to a four-year deal worth $67 million.
“It was great,” Thompson told The Post last week of getting the extension done. “It was a big relief, but it was cool to see just how much the Warriors believe in me, and believe I’m a building block. It makes me want to go out there and play hard every day.”
The Warriors were betting that Thompson, after spending the summer with Team USA, would come back a better player, and would continue to partner with Curry in the best backcourt in the NBA and as part of the bedrock of what Golden State thinks is a championship contender under new coach Steve Kerr in the loaded Western Conference.
And, so far, Thompson has proven them right.
It’s early, for sure, but Thompson has been a different player since this season began, improving across the board and suddenly becoming the kind of player who it made sense for Golden State to keep.
“I think it’s all part of the natural progression in a young player’s career,” Kerr said. “He got a lot better in the last couple of years since his rookie year. He made huge strides last year, was a borderline All-Star, then goes to Team USA and has a great summer, learns a lot more, and now here we go in this season.
“We talked to him a little bit in training camp about trying to get to the line more, about being a little greedier for great shots rather than settling for tough shots, and for the most part he’s been good. All in all, to me, he’s getting better because of himself because it’s a natural progression. As a player gets older, he gets smarter and he gets better.”
Thompson has certainly done all of those things so far this season, looking like a bonafide All-Star even in a Western Conference filled with elite guards like Curry, Kobe Bryant, James Harden, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. Thompson is averaging 23.6 points per game while shooting an absurd 46.7 percent from 3-point range.
But the most important thing about Thompson’s game is his improved free throw rate, which has jumped from a little more than two free throws a game to six a game so far this season. Given that Thompson is shooting 89 percent from the free throw line, those extra trips to the line are almost guaranteed points for him, and proof that he’s further diversifying his game.
“Getting to the line is huge because it gets you in a rhythm, you see the ball go in, and it’s something I really haven’t been doing the last three years,” Thompson said. “All the best scorers in the league, the best two guards to ever play this game were great at the free throw line.
“You don’t have to have the best handle or the best quickness or athleticism, but you have to know how to get to your spots, how to use that pump fake, how to get past your defender.”
He’s doing just that, and in addition is even passing the ball more, averaging over an assist per game more this season than last after he passed the ball less than just about any player in the league a year ago.
He said a big part of his improvement in that area came from his time with Team USA this summer, when he was thrust into a complimentary role for the first time since his rookie year.
“With the Warriors, I’m a go-to guy, someone knowing you’re getting 15, 16 shots a game,” Thompson said. “Being with Team USA, [I was] coming off the bench and just trying to make the most of my minutes, because I didn’t know if I was going to play five or 25. I was just trying to be efficient.”
Thompson wasn’t the only Warrior who wasn’t moving the ball well enough previously, however. Golden State finished almost dead-last in passes per possession last season – something Kerr made a point of changing after he replaced Mark Jackson this summer.
The results have been mixed thus far. The Warriors are currently leading the NBA in turnovers at nearly 20 per game, and Kerr is trying to walk a fine line between allowing players like Curry to play the kind of freewheeling, entertaining style of ball that’s made the Warriors one of everyone’s favorite teams to watch over the past few seasons and molding them into a team that can make a deep playoff run.
“What we’re trying to achieve is remain explosive, [high] tempo, fun, but in a smart way,” Kerr said. “I believe that’s an achievable balance but it takes some work.
“We’ve had some games where we’ve flung the ball around the gym, and you can’t win that way at the highest level. But we don’t want to just walk it up the court, so we have a lot of work to do, but we’re getting better.”
The Warriors have also seen Draymond Green come into his own this season, taking over the starting power forward job with David Lee out with a hamstring injury and becoming a legitimate stretch four, shooting almost 42 percent from 3-point range while giving Golden State excellent defense at the position.
Lee, while derided in some circles for his defense, is still an excellent offensive player. While Kerr declined to say how he’ll utilize Lee when he comes back from injury, having him come off the bench and anchor the team’s second unit with his low-post scoring and play-making abilities would give Golden State an added dimension it otherwise doesn’t have.
“What I like about Draymond and David is that they’re very different,” Kerr said. They give us an entirely different look. Draymond has become a really good stretch four but also a guy who can put it on the floor and draw and kick. He just fights and is smart.
“David is incredibly skilled down on the block. We miss that when he’s out. We don’t get much low-post scoring and so when he’s back we have to figure out how we’re going to play it with the combinations but it’s a good problem to have.”
The Warriors enter Friday’s play sitting at 8-2 and in second place in the Western Conference. That’s with Lee playing all of seven minutes so far and the team’s biggest offseason acquisition, Shaun Livingston – a 6-foot-7 point guard with length and athleticism who can allow Curry to play off the ball and is an excellent defender – still getting his rhythm back following offseason toe surgery.
“We feel like we can be special,” Thompson said. “No question. We’re deep. Our second unit is as good or better than a lot of starting units in this league.
“We definitely feel we can be special. We just have to take it week-by-week, but I really feel everyone in this locker room believes that.”
Sometimes the best moves you make are the ones where you don’t do anything. In Golden State’s case, keeping Thompson just may be the thing that lifts them into championship contention this season.
Roberts and Silver at it again
After Adam Silver and Michele Roberts went back-and-forth last week over the importance of owners in the NBA, the two are now at odds over the punishment levied by Silver and the league to Hornets forward Jeff Taylor this week.
Taylor was hit with a 24-game suspension without pay – including 11 games he’s already missed – by Silver for pleading guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence assault and malicious destruction of hotel property stemming from an incident at an East Lansing, MI hotel back in September.
“This suspension is necessary to protect the interests of the NBA and the public’s confidence in it,” Silver said in a statement Wednesday announcing his decision. “Mr. Taylor’s conduct violates applicable law and, in my opinion, does not conform to standards of morality and is prejudicial and detrimental to the NBA.”
The length of the suspension – almost a third of the NBA season, and the equivalent of about five games in the NFL – wasn’t surprising in the wake of the attention rightly focused on domestic violence in the wake of the Ray Rice situation this summer, and it was equally unsurprising that Roberts came out against it.
“The 24-game suspension imposed by Commissioner Silver against Jeff Taylor is excessive, without precedent and a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” the NBA Players’ Association said in a statement. “The CBA contemplates a minimum 10 game suspension in any case involving a conviction for a violent felony, including domestic violence. In contrast, Jeff Taylor was charged with a misdemeanor that is likely to be dismissed at the end of a probationary period. The 24-game suspension is one of the longest in the history of the league.”
The union made it clear it’s willing to support Taylor if he chooses to appeal, but Yahoo reports that he has opted not to. It’s been clear since Roberts took the job she was going to have no problem challenging Silver and the league office on a variety of fronts, and that is continuing this week.
Vogel proving worth
There were points during last season’s malaise for the Pacers where some questioned – insanely, in the opinion of this space – the job Frank Vogel was doing in Indianapolis, and whether or not he would or should be fired by Indiana as the team struggled down the stretch and in the early parts of the playoffs.
But the Pacers managed to get back into the Eastern Conference Finals, and after a rough offseason that saw them lose Lance Stephenson in free agency and Paul George to injury, Vogel was rightly rewarded with a contract extension for his efforts.
Through the first 12 games of the season, he’s shown why the talk about his demise last year was not only exaggerated, but absurd. The Pacers – despite missing George, David West and George Hill for the entire season thus far due to injury – are 5-7 entering Friday’s action, including wins over the Heat, Bulls and Hornets, three teams expected to make the playoffs in the East.
It’s hard to see the Pacers being able to remain in contention for a playoff berth this season, but Vogel is proving that the Pacers were wise to keep him around for the long term.
Thunder striking out
Here is our weekly update on the Thunder, whose push to try to make the playoffs over the final few months of this season – presuming Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant successfully return from injury without any setbacks – will be the most important story in the league.
With four straight losses, the Thunder have the worst record in the Western Conference, at 3-10, and are tied with the Knicks for second-worst in the NBA (ahead of only the hapless 76ers, who basically aren’t an NBA team) heading into Friday night’s game against the Nets.
Beginning with the Nets, five of the next seven games for the Thunder are against teams with losing records. This is the kind of stretch Oklahoma City needs to get some wins in if it wants to have any chance of making a run at the likely 50 wins they’ll need to make the playoffs once Durant and Westbrook return.
The only problem? They’ve already lost three of their last four games to teams with losing records, although two of them were on the road. Say the Thunder go 2-5 in this stretch; that would put them at 5-15 through 20 games, and would require them to go 45-12 to get the 50 wins they’ll need. Is that doable? For a Thunder team with healthy versions of Westbrook and Durant, sure. But that would be a 65-win pace over the course of an 82-game season, and in the last five years only one team – the 2012-13 Heat – won that many games, and they had a 27-game winning streak that season.
That’s why every win right now is crucial if the Thunder hope to make the playoffs. Because if they don’t start winning soon, they are going to dig themselves a hole even Durant and Westbrook won’t be able to lead them out of.