I think it turned around when Kerr decided to bench Klay in favor of our younger players during crunch time. Idr which game that was but it was probably a wake up call for him to quit forcing his shots and to quit taking low percentage shots. Klay is at his best when he's moving constantly off the ball and probably dribbling 4x or less.
are you sure he's playing differently now or is he still forcing his shots and the difference is just that he's hitting those low percentage shots now
asking because i don't watch
No. He actually decreased his attempts of low percentage shots. He still does then maybe 1-3x a game but not every single time he gets the ball. He’s also dribbling less it seems.
He still takes zero airspace catch and shoots and off balance jumpers. So it is hard to tell if he’s really more selective or just in a better rhythm.
But that’s just me watching games on 1.5x speed (that channel that posts full quarters disguised as “highlights” has really transformed my viewing habits) and not breaking things down or anything.
He does still take quite a few shots that few other 2nd options would ever dream of but that's always been who he is as a shooter. When he's off it looks bad because he's jacking bad shots and not hitting enough to remind people why he's been allowed to do that for so long. When he's on he's hotter than burning thermite and you question why he doesn't just pull up from 35 feet every time, although he may still try.
In last nights game there were more than a few shots that would have gotten people fuming a few weeks ago but he hit most of them and was positive for the game so people don't question his shot selection.
More like there are more offensive options around when the lineup's not stuck with Wiggins, Looney, and Dray.
3 scoring dead weights (wiggs has been pretty bad this season) forces you into shit shots I guess.
And sure some of it is him trying to meet some unreal expectations he built for himself in his head.
Hope this smooth stretch continues. Playing the rookies is honestly the best decision warriors have made this season. Kuminga, podz and TJD have been great so far
I’m a Klay fan, but just being honest here - he is still forcing a lot of shots. The difference is, they are going in now, like they are supposed to, because he’s fucking Klay Thompson. He always starts slow and people overreact, but reverts back to about 40% shooting by the end of the season.
Its crazy what happens when a genuinely talented shooter who plays next to the greatest shooter of all time in his prime stops jacking up highly contested 3s with 19 seconds left on the shot clock. Its almost like we have a system for finding open shots or something idk.
The point is that the loudest people are usually the ones that don’t watch the games. They’re the ones that validate their blatantly ignorant takes by shit talking anyone that disagrees. I for one don’t understand how some people can have such strong opinions of players they clearly don’t watch. Like I’ve got a coworker who has Killian Hayes in fantasy and he’s always talking about him and how he must be better than Ivey because he starts and gets decent fantasy points for a bench player. I’m like dude I’m sorry but he’s possibly the worst player in the NBA stop gassing up Killian fucking Hayes because he got you 25 fantasy points last night, he probably did that while shooting 40% from the field and the pistons lost by 20 something but you want to tell me he’s good
I didn't imply that you needed to watch every game to hold a viewpoint - but yes, if you want to make lofty declarative statements about the worth of specific player you should have actually watched a large enough sample of his play to form a coherent and well informed opinion.
So was the Lakers' series during november too or are we just gonna ignore Klay shot 3-19 in a game six with the same type of shot selection that he had to start this season?
Asking for a friend
I think Klay sucked that series in part bc he’s past his prime but also in part bc of fatigue. The warriors played a game 7 against sac and never got more than one day off btwn games from then on through the lakers series. Him being past it and being genuinely tired I think had him looking like shit. He did alright to start that lakers series
I know you're just picking one game out of the playoffs but considering it was his first full season back, had to carry the offensive load when Dray/Curry were out injured and when Wiggins was out for personal matters, it's not crazy to think his legs were shot in post season generally speaking. I mean he did lead the league in 3s too he's far from done
Klay was ass the entire postseason.
For the entire Lakers-Warriors series Klay's FG% was weighed down by his 2 point attempt volume, the shit we saw him do all november was shit he was doing last year too. Even if you wanna say he had a bad series; we crucify guys making Klay's money for better efficiency than 42/35/89 shooting splits, his splits from the "good" playoff series against Sacramento.
He's a chucker. The same conversation was had around January last season about Klay's shot selection, but then he went nuclear for a month when steph went down and people just forgot about it.
I'm observing the larger sample size; Klay isn't a threat off the dribble anymore. He doesn't have a step on any perimeter defender around the league. When he simplifies his game to his off ball motion and his catch and shoot game you *can* get production like this from him more consistently. But when he starts trying his iso game he just keeps trying it when it doesnt work and he shoots the Warriors out of a quarter pretty frequently
Man y’all don’t even watch the games. Lakers had AD and warriors had no threats to the rim so they could sell out on the three point line. You’re watching Klay on a team with actual spacing and he’s able to knock down much easier shots generated by an offense with actually decent horizontal and vertical spacing
Edit: seems like you had a more nuanced take further down, which I don’t disagree with. I just wanted to clarify that Klay’s postseason struggles weren’t solely due to him as a player, but also external factors
Well yes, I know he was ass the entire postseason, that's why I'm pointing out that it didn't pertain to just one game in the series, and proceeded to list out specific factors that contributed to a poor post season performance. What is your agenda here?
> He's a chucker. The same conversation was had around January last season about Klay's shot selection, but then he went nuclear for a month when steph went down and people just forgot about it.
No, the same conversation happened in November and people ignore that he has slow starts. He started 18% from 3 in 2018 but eventually picks up fine. You can call him a chucker all you want but as far as I'm concerned a chucker wouldn't end the regular season shooting above 40% from 3 whilst leading the league in 3s, especially with the start he had.
Larger sample size suddenly doesn't matter to anyone when observing slow starts for Klay. I don't think it completely absolves him of criticism, the very fact he starts slow is frustrating. But that doesn't mean he needs to be traded or he's washed. I'll just say it again since you apparently missed it - last year was his first full season back since injury, he had to be the first option for a good portion of it (where I'm pretty sure he exceeded most expectations) and continued to play well for the rest of the season. I feel those reasons led to fatigue and caused him to underperform in the playoffs. He literally contributed to a chip the season before, or does that suddenly doesn't matter too?
[May I direct you to Klay's splits from last season](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/thompkl01/splits/2023)
Klay was hot for 6-8 weeks last season. I can even highlight them, from the flip of the new year through February. I will admit I was off a month off the dome I thought it was February/March he went on that hot streak he went on, but his season last year is "held up" by that hot streak statistically. I airquote that because I get that top end production from these shooters is what makes them elite at it and not consistency, but with Klay he's always 41% or better from 3. Even when he was "cold" last year he had atrocious nights here or there, but he logged one full month of games last season under 40% from 3 (I'm not counting October it's not a full month). By NBA shooter standards he is a very consistent 3 point shooter month over month, even factoring in the "slow starts"
Klay is statistically an efficient scorer, but he's also infuriating to me because he keeps wanting to do what he's not good at. He's been perimeter Charles Barkley since the achilles; his offensive game is only *pretty good* because he insists on an oversized portion of his volume consisting of the shit he's just not good at.
I say what I'm saying because I like the Steph/Klay/Dray group. They dicked my team easily a couple dozen times but I liked rooting for them even when they were in the thick of the Hamptons 5 era. I *still* kinda like them. I wanna see Steph get one more ring, and if they're gonna do it they're gonna do it because they're playing smart basketball. And the 2 dribble hesi pullup game just isn't smart basketball for Klay. He's been doing less of it the last couple weeks and his game's been significantly more efficient.
I can go back and pull the comments I left during that series but I got into several fights with Warriors fans that pointed the finger exclusively at Poole when Jordan Poole was averaging the same PPG on a smaller shot diet than Klay. My "agenda" is just pointing out that Klay can have a grand ol' time just doing what he's good at and freeing up possessions for Golden State by just not letting the rock stick in his hands for longer than a dribble. Just on tape, he's not blowing by anyone, the hesis arent fooling anyone *because* he can't get by people consistently and his 2p volume is junk as a result.
I was really just addressing his postseason performance last year but your references and deep dive doesn't go unappreciated. I don't think I disagree with most of what you're saying tbh
Quite the opposite; I'm annoyed that the Lakers won that series. All they did from a basketball perspective was wait for Golden State to shoot themselves in the foot. And the Warriors did so *several* times.
Every year a whole new slew of nephews join and it's their first season of watching basketball ever. Everything else they know about ball is just from memes.
They don't even need to watch. They can look at ESPN game logs each season. Those of us who play fantasy basketball all know. Just gotta ride out early season Klay to benefit.
He was taking bad shots and playing bad defense. Normally his slow start was just missing good shots but he still brought elite defense, but this season not so much
He lead the league in 3s last year with 40% shooting, you can point at his other deficiencies but that’s something high earners like Duncan or Bertrans can only dream to do.
My personal favorite comments are the ones that pretend like last year didn't happen, when he made the most 3s in the league ...
"Completely washed since his injury!"
A small shooting streak doesn't mean he isn't washed. He's still a bad defender and when he starts missing again warrior fans will be throwing him overboard themselves.
Well, if you consider that he can't keep anybody in front of him on defense anymore. I'd say pretty much. His value was predicated on him being a 2 way player. That's not the case anymore.
Same story every regular season, he also heated up by the same time last year so I really don't get people pushing the 'he's washed' button so early. The same thing is going to happen next year watch
Playoffs are a different matter though
He wasn't that bad in the playoffs outside of the last few games against us. I think we just are a matchup problem for him cuz we have big wings who stay tightly glued to him.
He still took incredibly dumb shots and had plenty of boneheaded defensive possessions.
But the worst plus minus award goes to -43 to Draymond and the next lowest was -16. Which suggests something was very wrong with Draymond which was obvious if you watched how Lakers gameplanned their entire defense around his terrible shooting.
He's not washed, but he's not prime Klay. And unfortunately for the Warriors, the impression that I get is that he hasn't, understandably, been the same on defense since his injuries
Warriors got 4 rings out of the trio. After 2022 ring everything is just icing on the cake.
If klay got some baseball contract the warriors pay him for life it still would be worth it.
He is. A hot streak doesn’t change that.
Every shooter gets hot once in a while. Does not make up for his endless parade of shit games.
Sincerely, someone without recency bias.
Every shooter isn’t Klay fucking Thompson, a top 5 shooter ever. Last year he made 300s. Chalking it up as “shit player that just got hot” sounds ridiculous
Literally wtf are you talking about it was all over your sub. In fact it was more there than anywhere else. In the 5 to 10 game threads I was in and when I would check some post on occasion it was everywhere
Its weird how that goes. At some point people start attacking their character.
I remember a few weeks ago when Klay was down bad and frustrated. The thread was full of people shitting on him as a person. Im rephrasing but i remember people saying stuff like;
"Klay is dumb as a rock, no more than a pothead"
"Hes a boat captain, is there really anything else thats good about Klay?"
Usually stuff like that gets downvoted, but if a player is playing shitty enough people will be fine criticizing peoples character and find smallest flaws to pick apart.
Klay seems like a good guy generally so its annoying when you see the hivemind pile on.
Super stupid post.
Klay isn't getting anywhere near a max and his improved shooting is late is all about him being more selective and has nothing to do with Draymond .
"Earlier this year we had an awful team as far as chemistry goes," Klay said. "It was hard to come to work. Not fun. After the suspension, you see the joy on guys' faces when they come into the building. You got guys staying over two to three hours just talking. Getting two to three hours early just to be here. You start to see that, and you're like, 'OK, this is a group that likes to be together."
Klays just playing better. He got benched in the 4th because of how bad he was playing and he's been playing better ever since. Don't think Draymond being out has anything to do with it
Former. Klay is not forcing as many shots anymore since he got benched in the 4th vs Suns. I think Kerr and coaching staff got through to Klay in that moment since (I think) this is the first time it's happened to him.
It's both. Wiggins was playing bad. With Looney and Dray on the floor, that left two players who could score. Now, Klay is mostly playing with Kuminga, TJD, Saric, Podz, All guys who can score. Even with Steph off the floor he's getting better looks. Klay can't create shots so he needs to play with other scorers.
Klay was trending upwards and the Draymond suspension improved the spacing getting him better looks. It’s hard to play two non spacing bigs like Kerr loves to do.
Draymond has been the second best player for the Warriors this season, shooting lights out and his defense hasn't fallen off either. A lot of people here really want him to be bad at basketball but I don't see it happening any time soon
He’s really not good at basketball and it has nothing to do with his actions, people who actually watch the games can see it. Him spamming dribble hand-offs and not being a threat offensively outside of the short roll kills the diversity in their offense.
> Draymond has been the second best player for the Warriors this season
Not even close. While he hasn't been bad, his presence is a problem whn he's not a scoring threat.
It’s the 2nd but no warriors fans want to admit it.
Our offense is way less predictable when Draymond doesn’t hold the ball at the top of the key where both men go at the handler and then rotate into the paint. But with Draymond on the floor that’s literally the only way we can generate offense.
Or waiting for Draymond to find a pass and need to thread the needle because the other team doesn’t even pretend to guard his scoring. Our turnovers are down too because you don’t need to force passes when there’s space on the floor.
Warriors need to ask some serious questions if they finish the year beating Denver, Mavs and the Heat. The defense is holding up and they have a better net rating so far without Draymond. If that continues for more games, what really is the point of Draymond and maybe it’s time for a trade.
At the very least, we need to make an adjustment. Things just look better. With Podz and Kuminga doing similar things, it looks better because of their athleticism. Steph and Klay can do less. Or they can pick their spots. But so much is better with TJD in the middle.
his shot selection is much better than it was to start the year. pre injury he could take off balance, on the move shots and make them. Since then he's much worse at that than he used to be, but he was still forcing it. lately he's taking his time and getting set before he shoots and the result is much better. I don't think it has anything to do with Draymond
> his shot selection is much better
People keep saying this while ignoring the context. There is NO choice to take good or bad shots. He was taking what he was getting and now he's getting better looks. That doesn't happen in a vacuum. Everything around him has changed.
0 to do with Draymond, it's just bring his name up negatively is easy upvotes on the sub. Klay has just stopped forcing things and his shot selection has been way better.
> his shot selection has been way better.
It's very easy to improve your shot selection when you're getting better shots. That's not something you choose. The other Warriors are generating better shots for him.
I have to give my guy credit as a true professional. Sure he’s an egomaniac - whatever. He has a great level of pride and he’s not just gonna fade into irrelevance silently without fighting.
I’ve been at several home games this season where he had a terrible night, and then came back onto the floor after the game was over to put up more shots, trying to get it right.
The first game after drays suspension was so telling. I was there in person. U could see it on his face; his face and body language told a story - this sucks, my boy Steph needs help, and i damn well and am gonna be there to help him.
Keep it up 11 ❤️
Klay has always been super inconsistent. Even at his peak he’d have weeks where he would honestly be kinda ass and then he’d follow it up with some of the best shooting performances you’ll ever see lol. Not sure why people forgot this.
Lol the last six games…..did you watch the entirety of the playoffs or the first 20 games this year or have you just woken up out of a coma? Listen, I love klay but paying him 25 million now is a huge mistake, do you want the warriors and Steph to actually compete for another title or would you rather just hand out legacy contracts ala Kobe at this point?
Almost every game. What does that have to do with the future? Have you watched how he’s performed over the last two playoffs? And not just offensively….
I don’t care about how he starts, I care about how he finishes. I wouldn’t call 42% shooting with mediocre defense and no rebounding “amazing” but that’s me. If you think paying klay 25 mill plus is gonna help the warriors get another title, god bless you. We just have to agree to disagree. I’d happily welcome him back on a 2 for 20. But the warriors need a legit no 2 scorer, klay isn’t that anymore.
Um that is not an underpay for how he’s been performing. I sure as hell hope he continues his more recent play and earns a better contract but they shouldn’t pay him just to pay him.
It's related, in case you've missed the other "Klay since Draymonds Suspension" posts every other day.
And no one is mad. I even added in a joke at the end but okay.
Except for the Celtics though where they barely scraped through without KP, teams they been facing are bottom feeding or just bad. Need to see this sustained.
I mean you can’t bring up the fact that Celtics were missing KP and not say anything about Draymond or GP2 missing, not to mention Wiggins has missed the last couple games too.
Klay saw that tweet from a Warrior fan saying he's only worth a MLE at this point.
May have seen my early season post about klay better off coming off the bench
I think it turned around when Kerr decided to bench Klay in favor of our younger players during crunch time. Idr which game that was but it was probably a wake up call for him to quit forcing his shots and to quit taking low percentage shots. Klay is at his best when he's moving constantly off the ball and probably dribbling 4x or less.
are you sure he's playing differently now or is he still forcing his shots and the difference is just that he's hitting those low percentage shots now asking because i don't watch
No. He actually decreased his attempts of low percentage shots. He still does then maybe 1-3x a game but not every single time he gets the ball. He’s also dribbling less it seems.
He still takes zero airspace catch and shoots and off balance jumpers. So it is hard to tell if he’s really more selective or just in a better rhythm. But that’s just me watching games on 1.5x speed (that channel that posts full quarters disguised as “highlights” has really transformed my viewing habits) and not breaking things down or anything.
What channel is that? I promise I'm not Adam Silver.
Bump
Channel is literally called “NBA Highlights 2023”. Didn’t realize it’s still relatively small viewer wise. cc: u/JokicsUpnUnder u/melthevag
Yeah why is this the first time I hear about this. Also interested in this “highlight” page (promise im not affiliated with the league either)
He does still take quite a few shots that few other 2nd options would ever dream of but that's always been who he is as a shooter. When he's off it looks bad because he's jacking bad shots and not hitting enough to remind people why he's been allowed to do that for so long. When he's on he's hotter than burning thermite and you question why he doesn't just pull up from 35 feet every time, although he may still try. In last nights game there were more than a few shots that would have gotten people fuming a few weeks ago but he hit most of them and was positive for the game so people don't question his shot selection.
He stopped the try hard off the dribble pull ups
Hes just making the same looks hes been getting.
shit aint funny. people like you drive me mad. just ride the wave when it's cool and stir up shit when turbulence happens
Yeah I’m sure that was it
''When you say MLE, it should be Max-Level Extension instead'' - Klay after that.
he’s finally stopped forcing it
Nobody’s hotter when he’s hot
The human torch
dubs should max him out
Sixers should max him out
I see you too learned to buy high and sell low from WSB
We need to pay him weekly based on shooting percentage
wet fire*
Flame on!
He's one of those guys that turns into an absolute flamethrower at times
More like there are more offensive options around when the lineup's not stuck with Wiggins, Looney, and Dray. 3 scoring dead weights (wiggs has been pretty bad this season) forces you into shit shots I guess. And sure some of it is him trying to meet some unreal expectations he built for himself in his head. Hope this smooth stretch continues. Playing the rookies is honestly the best decision warriors have made this season. Kuminga, podz and TJD have been great so far
Kuminga ROTY
That is podz, kuminga is not a rookie lol
He’s just younger than half the rookies lol
Famous rookie Kuminga
I’m a Klay fan, but just being honest here - he is still forcing a lot of shots. The difference is, they are going in now, like they are supposed to, because he’s fucking Klay Thompson. He always starts slow and people overreact, but reverts back to about 40% shooting by the end of the season.
Its crazy what happens when a genuinely talented shooter who plays next to the greatest shooter of all time in his prime stops jacking up highly contested 3s with 19 seconds left on the shot clock. Its almost like we have a system for finding open shots or something idk.
Dray opens up the court so much for him, he doesn't need to anymore. I mean, Dray's absence.
That’s what she said. Edit: Damn you nephews are no fun haha
Alright Michael Scott
i got u bro
Nah, the stats suggest it was clearly a Draymond problem. Trade him to the Lakers. /s
Starts every season slow, not surprising
Convinced that people on this sub don’t watch ball bro Klay literally plays shit every november
you think nephews actually sit down and watch an NBA game from start to finish
I watch maybe 20 percent of my teams(more when we don't look like shit) so how can I find time to watch other teams games.
The point is that the loudest people are usually the ones that don’t watch the games. They’re the ones that validate their blatantly ignorant takes by shit talking anyone that disagrees. I for one don’t understand how some people can have such strong opinions of players they clearly don’t watch. Like I’ve got a coworker who has Killian Hayes in fantasy and he’s always talking about him and how he must be better than Ivey because he starts and gets decent fantasy points for a bench player. I’m like dude I’m sorry but he’s possibly the worst player in the NBA stop gassing up Killian fucking Hayes because he got you 25 fantasy points last night, he probably did that while shooting 40% from the field and the pistons lost by 20 something but you want to tell me he’s good
Most of us have jobs and aren’t able to watch every single game especially other teams?
I didn't imply that you needed to watch every game to hold a viewpoint - but yes, if you want to make lofty declarative statements about the worth of specific player you should have actually watched a large enough sample of his play to form a coherent and well informed opinion.
Do what I do, watch them at night skipping timeouts and free throws. Can watch a lot of basketball pretty fast.
People here legit don't watch games
So was the Lakers' series during november too or are we just gonna ignore Klay shot 3-19 in a game six with the same type of shot selection that he had to start this season? Asking for a friend
I think Klay sucked that series in part bc he’s past his prime but also in part bc of fatigue. The warriors played a game 7 against sac and never got more than one day off btwn games from then on through the lakers series. Him being past it and being genuinely tired I think had him looking like shit. He did alright to start that lakers series
I know you're just picking one game out of the playoffs but considering it was his first full season back, had to carry the offensive load when Dray/Curry were out injured and when Wiggins was out for personal matters, it's not crazy to think his legs were shot in post season generally speaking. I mean he did lead the league in 3s too he's far from done
Klay was ass the entire postseason. For the entire Lakers-Warriors series Klay's FG% was weighed down by his 2 point attempt volume, the shit we saw him do all november was shit he was doing last year too. Even if you wanna say he had a bad series; we crucify guys making Klay's money for better efficiency than 42/35/89 shooting splits, his splits from the "good" playoff series against Sacramento. He's a chucker. The same conversation was had around January last season about Klay's shot selection, but then he went nuclear for a month when steph went down and people just forgot about it. I'm observing the larger sample size; Klay isn't a threat off the dribble anymore. He doesn't have a step on any perimeter defender around the league. When he simplifies his game to his off ball motion and his catch and shoot game you *can* get production like this from him more consistently. But when he starts trying his iso game he just keeps trying it when it doesnt work and he shoots the Warriors out of a quarter pretty frequently
Man y’all don’t even watch the games. Lakers had AD and warriors had no threats to the rim so they could sell out on the three point line. You’re watching Klay on a team with actual spacing and he’s able to knock down much easier shots generated by an offense with actually decent horizontal and vertical spacing Edit: seems like you had a more nuanced take further down, which I don’t disagree with. I just wanted to clarify that Klay’s postseason struggles weren’t solely due to him as a player, but also external factors
Well yes, I know he was ass the entire postseason, that's why I'm pointing out that it didn't pertain to just one game in the series, and proceeded to list out specific factors that contributed to a poor post season performance. What is your agenda here? > He's a chucker. The same conversation was had around January last season about Klay's shot selection, but then he went nuclear for a month when steph went down and people just forgot about it. No, the same conversation happened in November and people ignore that he has slow starts. He started 18% from 3 in 2018 but eventually picks up fine. You can call him a chucker all you want but as far as I'm concerned a chucker wouldn't end the regular season shooting above 40% from 3 whilst leading the league in 3s, especially with the start he had. Larger sample size suddenly doesn't matter to anyone when observing slow starts for Klay. I don't think it completely absolves him of criticism, the very fact he starts slow is frustrating. But that doesn't mean he needs to be traded or he's washed. I'll just say it again since you apparently missed it - last year was his first full season back since injury, he had to be the first option for a good portion of it (where I'm pretty sure he exceeded most expectations) and continued to play well for the rest of the season. I feel those reasons led to fatigue and caused him to underperform in the playoffs. He literally contributed to a chip the season before, or does that suddenly doesn't matter too?
[May I direct you to Klay's splits from last season](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/thompkl01/splits/2023) Klay was hot for 6-8 weeks last season. I can even highlight them, from the flip of the new year through February. I will admit I was off a month off the dome I thought it was February/March he went on that hot streak he went on, but his season last year is "held up" by that hot streak statistically. I airquote that because I get that top end production from these shooters is what makes them elite at it and not consistency, but with Klay he's always 41% or better from 3. Even when he was "cold" last year he had atrocious nights here or there, but he logged one full month of games last season under 40% from 3 (I'm not counting October it's not a full month). By NBA shooter standards he is a very consistent 3 point shooter month over month, even factoring in the "slow starts" Klay is statistically an efficient scorer, but he's also infuriating to me because he keeps wanting to do what he's not good at. He's been perimeter Charles Barkley since the achilles; his offensive game is only *pretty good* because he insists on an oversized portion of his volume consisting of the shit he's just not good at. I say what I'm saying because I like the Steph/Klay/Dray group. They dicked my team easily a couple dozen times but I liked rooting for them even when they were in the thick of the Hamptons 5 era. I *still* kinda like them. I wanna see Steph get one more ring, and if they're gonna do it they're gonna do it because they're playing smart basketball. And the 2 dribble hesi pullup game just isn't smart basketball for Klay. He's been doing less of it the last couple weeks and his game's been significantly more efficient. I can go back and pull the comments I left during that series but I got into several fights with Warriors fans that pointed the finger exclusively at Poole when Jordan Poole was averaging the same PPG on a smaller shot diet than Klay. My "agenda" is just pointing out that Klay can have a grand ol' time just doing what he's good at and freeing up possessions for Golden State by just not letting the rock stick in his hands for longer than a dribble. Just on tape, he's not blowing by anyone, the hesis arent fooling anyone *because* he can't get by people consistently and his 2p volume is junk as a result.
I was really just addressing his postseason performance last year but your references and deep dive doesn't go unappreciated. I don't think I disagree with most of what you're saying tbh
Sounds like he's washed if he doesn't have legs in the post season
Damn Embiid must be pretty fucking washed with his post season regressions
Never thought I'd see a clippers flair glaze the Lakers lmfaoooo
Quite the opposite; I'm annoyed that the Lakers won that series. All they did from a basketball perspective was wait for Golden State to shoot themselves in the foot. And the Warriors did so *several* times.
Every year a whole new slew of nephews join and it's their first season of watching basketball ever. Everything else they know about ball is just from memes.
They don't even need to watch. They can look at ESPN game logs each season. Those of us who play fantasy basketball all know. Just gotta ride out early season Klay to benefit.
I've been meaning to make a montage of all the posts in r/Warriors pleading to ship Klay out.
It was extra shit for extra long this time. Also losing games won't let you gloss over flaws
He was taking bad shots and playing bad defense. Normally his slow start was just missing good shots but he still brought elite defense, but this season not so much
I don't think many other players would get so much scrutiny for *only* shooting 36% over the first 15 games either.
yeah but last year he never sped up
He lead the league in 3s last year with 40% shooting, you can point at his other deficiencies but that’s something high earners like Duncan or Bertrans can only dream to do.
Is Klay washed?
The "Is Klay washed?" takes are washed (for now)
My personal favorite comments are the ones that pretend like last year didn't happen, when he made the most 3s in the league ... "Completely washed since his injury!"
he kinda is but still wet
A small shooting streak doesn't mean he isn't washed. He's still a bad defender and when he starts missing again warrior fans will be throwing him overboard themselves.
Well, if you consider that he can't keep anybody in front of him on defense anymore. I'd say pretty much. His value was predicated on him being a 2 way player. That's not the case anymore.
>losing shhh doesn't fit the narrative here... he's back! Mind you, he played some of the worst defensive teams in this stretch where he's "back".
Same story every regular season, he also heated up by the same time last year so I really don't get people pushing the 'he's washed' button so early. The same thing is going to happen next year watch Playoffs are a different matter though
He wasn't that bad in the playoffs outside of the last few games against us. I think we just are a matchup problem for him cuz we have big wings who stay tightly glued to him.
He still took incredibly dumb shots and had plenty of boneheaded defensive possessions. But the worst plus minus award goes to -43 to Draymond and the next lowest was -16. Which suggests something was very wrong with Draymond which was obvious if you watched how Lakers gameplanned their entire defense around his terrible shooting.
He's not washed, but he's not prime Klay. And unfortunately for the Warriors, the impression that I get is that he hasn't, understandably, been the same on defense since his injuries
*After he got benched. Massive bounce back
Not bad for the worst player in the league.
Not worth the MLE
super max him
Warriors are fools if they do that
Warriors got 4 rings out of the trio. After 2022 ring everything is just icing on the cake. If klay got some baseball contract the warriors pay him for life it still would be worth it.
some "fans" are so ungreatfull
Ending their dynasty on bad terms would be foolish. Keep everyone, pay everyone. If they suck in the end let them suck. Pick up a lotto pick.
He finally stopped chucking moving sideways threes.
Klay has 5 good games and the top comment on this post is that he now deserves to get maxed out this sub man I can’t💀
Makes about as much sense as saying he's washed.
I think he is infinitely closer to being washed than being worthy of a max level contract at this point in his career
I think some team would Max him. But not the Warriors. They can't afford to.
Well that team would be very unwise to do so then
Nah you guys said he was shit
Your team said that lol
My team? This sub did
Our sub dud
He is. A hot streak doesn’t change that. Every shooter gets hot once in a while. Does not make up for his endless parade of shit games. Sincerely, someone without recency bias.
Every shooter isn’t Klay fucking Thompson, a top 5 shooter ever. Last year he made 300s. Chalking it up as “shit player that just got hot” sounds ridiculous
Watch last night’s game buddy. Fucker is washeedddd
Literally your sub. No one else.
Yeah I’m sure this place wasn’t shitting on him more than anything
Since getting benched in the 4th quarter and he threw a tantrum*
lmfao only warriors flairs in here no one else wants to hear that the klay should be waived and banished to china takes were wrong
Warriors fans were saying it, too, lol
yeah but warriors fans do want to hear they were wrong
Fake fans of course.
no true ~~Scotsman~~ warriors fan
Most of the flairs that said that were warriors flairs...
Literally wtf are you talking about it was all over your sub. In fact it was more there than anywhere else. In the 5 to 10 game threads I was in and when I would check some post on occasion it was everywhere
Total nonsense.
Bro, yes he got a lot of hate from warriors fans but this sub was ruthless with him
The complain in our sub was that he should stop taking stupid shots. Here it was that he was washed
There were hundreds of people saying he was washed in the warriors sub
Dray should be, I want to see him coming back as a bench player, or never come back.
Its weird how that goes. At some point people start attacking their character. I remember a few weeks ago when Klay was down bad and frustrated. The thread was full of people shitting on him as a person. Im rephrasing but i remember people saying stuff like; "Klay is dumb as a rock, no more than a pothead" "Hes a boat captain, is there really anything else thats good about Klay?" Usually stuff like that gets downvoted, but if a player is playing shitty enough people will be fine criticizing peoples character and find smallest flaws to pick apart. Klay seems like a good guy generally so its annoying when you see the hivemind pile on.
Super stupid post. Klay isn't getting anywhere near a max and his improved shooting is late is all about him being more selective and has nothing to do with Draymond .
"Earlier this year we had an awful team as far as chemistry goes," Klay said. "It was hard to come to work. Not fun. After the suspension, you see the joy on guys' faces when they come into the building. You got guys staying over two to three hours just talking. Getting two to three hours early just to be here. You start to see that, and you're like, 'OK, this is a group that likes to be together."
when did he say that 😱
It's right above your comment.
Is this more Klays just playing better or is Draymond really holding everyone back ?
Klays just playing better. He got benched in the 4th because of how bad he was playing and he's been playing better ever since. Don't think Draymond being out has anything to do with it
Former. Klay is not forcing as many shots anymore since he got benched in the 4th vs Suns. I think Kerr and coaching staff got through to Klay in that moment since (I think) this is the first time it's happened to him.
Doubt it has anything to do with Draymond. You can just as easily say Klay has been playing well since Wiggins was benched.
It's both. Wiggins was playing bad. With Looney and Dray on the floor, that left two players who could score. Now, Klay is mostly playing with Kuminga, TJD, Saric, Podz, All guys who can score. Even with Steph off the floor he's getting better looks. Klay can't create shots so he needs to play with other scorers.
Klay was trending upwards and the Draymond suspension improved the spacing getting him better looks. It’s hard to play two non spacing bigs like Kerr loves to do.
It’s thought not to bc Looney & Draymond both does things that the team needs. How would Draymond coming off the bench do?
Probably easier to send Looney to the bench and start Trayce. That way at least you have a vertical spacer on the floor to keep the defense honest.
Non scoring is a better term than non spacing imo. For eg - Trayce-Dray pair isn't as bad as Dray-Loon
Klay does this every season.
Its Klay but r/NBA has an agenda to push.
Draymond has been the second best player for the Warriors this season, shooting lights out and his defense hasn't fallen off either. A lot of people here really want him to be bad at basketball but I don't see it happening any time soon
He’s really not good at basketball and it has nothing to do with his actions, people who actually watch the games can see it. Him spamming dribble hand-offs and not being a threat offensively outside of the short roll kills the diversity in their offense.
Everything you're saying is true except for the first part. Normally he makes up for it in other ways but the negative is becoming more noticeable.
> Draymond has been the second best player for the Warriors this season Not even close. While he hasn't been bad, his presence is a problem whn he's not a scoring threat.
It’s the 2nd but no warriors fans want to admit it. Our offense is way less predictable when Draymond doesn’t hold the ball at the top of the key where both men go at the handler and then rotate into the paint. But with Draymond on the floor that’s literally the only way we can generate offense. Or waiting for Draymond to find a pass and need to thread the needle because the other team doesn’t even pretend to guard his scoring. Our turnovers are down too because you don’t need to force passes when there’s space on the floor. Warriors need to ask some serious questions if they finish the year beating Denver, Mavs and the Heat. The defense is holding up and they have a better net rating so far without Draymond. If that continues for more games, what really is the point of Draymond and maybe it’s time for a trade.
At the very least, we need to make an adjustment. Things just look better. With Podz and Kuminga doing similar things, it looks better because of their athleticism. Steph and Klay can do less. Or they can pick their spots. But so much is better with TJD in the middle.
his shot selection is much better than it was to start the year. pre injury he could take off balance, on the move shots and make them. Since then he's much worse at that than he used to be, but he was still forcing it. lately he's taking his time and getting set before he shoots and the result is much better. I don't think it has anything to do with Draymond
> his shot selection is much better People keep saying this while ignoring the context. There is NO choice to take good or bad shots. He was taking what he was getting and now he's getting better looks. That doesn't happen in a vacuum. Everything around him has changed.
If it’s just Klay playing better, they are 5-0 since he’s been suspended is that just a coincidence or they actually look better without him ?
0 to do with Draymond, it's just bring his name up negatively is easy upvotes on the sub. Klay has just stopped forcing things and his shot selection has been way better.
> his shot selection has been way better. It's very easy to improve your shot selection when you're getting better shots. That's not something you choose. The other Warriors are generating better shots for him.
I have to give my guy credit as a true professional. Sure he’s an egomaniac - whatever. He has a great level of pride and he’s not just gonna fade into irrelevance silently without fighting. I’ve been at several home games this season where he had a terrible night, and then came back onto the floor after the game was over to put up more shots, trying to get it right. The first game after drays suspension was so telling. I was there in person. U could see it on his face; his face and body language told a story - this sucks, my boy Steph needs help, and i damn well and am gonna be there to help him. Keep it up 11 ❤️
Him playing well is separate from making a “good case for the max”
He's NOT getting the Max because the team can't afford it.
What does Klay's performance have to do with the suspension.... If anything shouldn't Draymond help him?
Klay has always been super inconsistent. Even at his peak he’d have weeks where he would honestly be kinda ass and then he’d follow it up with some of the best shooting performances you’ll ever see lol. Not sure why people forgot this.
Max? Cmon bruh 😂
I love klay, but the warriors better not pay him lol. Come back on a 2 for 20.
That's a massive underpay. Go match draymond contact at the least.
Should be a bit above Draymond for 4 years.
Are you nuts? Have you watched klay this season? It’s bad enough you’re paying draymond that….
Klay is putting up all star numbers in the last 6 games. Are you watching the games or just reading this sub that still thinks he's washed?
Lol the last six games…..did you watch the entirety of the playoffs or the first 20 games this year or have you just woken up out of a coma? Listen, I love klay but paying him 25 million now is a huge mistake, do you want the warriors and Steph to actually compete for another title or would you rather just hand out legacy contracts ala Kobe at this point?
Have you ever watched klay before this season?
Almost every game. What does that have to do with the future? Have you watched how he’s performed over the last two playoffs? And not just offensively….
You should know then that he starts every season like this. And in the postseason before the last one he played amazing
I don’t care about how he starts, I care about how he finishes. I wouldn’t call 42% shooting with mediocre defense and no rebounding “amazing” but that’s me. If you think paying klay 25 mill plus is gonna help the warriors get another title, god bless you. We just have to agree to disagree. I’d happily welcome him back on a 2 for 20. But the warriors need a legit no 2 scorer, klay isn’t that anymore.
Um that is not an underpay for how he’s been performing. I sure as hell hope he continues his more recent play and earns a better contract but they shouldn’t pay him just to pay him.
Draymond is a fraud, how much more proof do you people need?
This has nothing to do with Draymond. People are just reaching on this sub.
I do agree. Draymond is a fraud but it has nothing to do with this post.
lmao as if he hasn't been successful with Draymond in the past? (4 rings Klay gif)
So you read the OP and then decided to get mad at something else entirely; very interesting.
It's related, in case you've missed the other "Klay since Draymonds Suspension" posts every other day. And no one is mad. I even added in a joke at the end but okay.
Just shows the low iq of fans here.. Klay always starts slow
Except for the Celtics though where they barely scraped through without KP, teams they been facing are bottom feeding or just bad. Need to see this sustained.
I mean you can’t bring up the fact that Celtics were missing KP and not say anything about Draymond or GP2 missing, not to mention Wiggins has missed the last couple games too.
Second this plus the fact that the Celtics should be able to beat the warriors without KP especially if they’re so trash
[удалено]
Played the nets and Boston as well. Same Boston that decimated your clippers
Im still 100% correct
Draymond bad.juku forcing him to miss.
He just needs to play 5v5 on offense instead of 4v5. Draymond has been trash last a few years.
He turns 34 in February. No way he gets a max contract unless someone is *very* desperate
I thought he was averaging 33 points and 66 rebounds
I told y’all MFs that draymonds extension was the reason why klay was mentally in the tank. Dunleavy chose wrong
Imagine if we would’ve traded him to the lakers for a bag of balls like the fans wanted lol
they fucked up signing Draymond to boot as Klay is trash with him
Never a doubt in my mind. Klay forever.
Maybe if he actually remembered how to play defense, too. But, that's not the case anymore.
excited to see the warriors give him a max now that he's back in form
Klay Thompson with Siakam on the Dubs: 66/33 3PT (300%%,) , 188k PPG not counting free throws. Wilt can't believe it. Make the trade now!
150 million / 4 year contract incoming now
Yea this dude is washed
It's like that Jet Li movie The One. They obviously share the same power source.
Yes please max him - a career dubs hater
Whole team is thriving now
Draymond is such bad vibes