klay thompson: rejuvenated (Photo: @susiekelly121 Instagram account)
Since the start of the New Year until the All-Star Break, Klay Thompson was in a noticeable shooting slump, converting on 39.2% from the field, 41% from beyond the arc, with a 50.2% true shooting percentage over 20 games.
Since the All-Star Break, however, Thompson’s shooting has come back to life. Through March 27th, he had shot 47.2% from the field, 42.5% from three-point range and had a true shooting percentage of 56.8%, all above his season and career averages.
In a previous article we discussed the general inconsistency of shooters from game to game by comparing Thompson’s season to Ray Allen‘s 2007-2008 championship-winning season with the Boston Celtics.
However, beyond the general inconsistency of players who rely heavily on the outside shot, there may be other factors which have contributed to this.
Per probasketballtalk.com in January:
Thompson has covered more ground running than any NBA player, 100.8 miles this season. Thompson covers an average of 2.7 miles per game, again most in the NBA.
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle shared on KNBR 680 on March 13th his thoughts on why Thompson’s shot was suffering going into the All-Star Break.
“I think he was exhausted going into the All-Star Break,” Simmons said, “I forget the exact number right now, but he’s run more miles than anyone in the entire league right now. He’s constantly running off screens on offense, and constantly chasing opposing point guards on defense and I think he was just exhausted going into the break. And when you don’t have your legs, you can’t shoot. The break was good for him. He came back rested and healthy, and this is the player we expected to see and is what you’re seeing right now.”
On the season as a whole Thompson’s still among the league leaders in miles covered per game. His season average is now 2.5 miles per game, second in the NBA.
Thompson is asked to guard the point guard most nights, possibly the most difficult job in the NBA considering the depth of talent at the position. One night it’s Tony Parker, the next it’s Chris Paul, Goran Dragic and so on.
This role requires him to brush off countless screens by the opposing teams big men, attempting to separate Thompson from their point guard.
In addition to drawing the tough defensive assignment, Thompson is vital to the Warriors offense to create space. He is asked to move off-ball on most possessions running off one screen to another from side to side.
All of this leads to Thompson being asked to cover more ground than any player on the Warriors and, in the first half of the season, doing it for nearly 38 minutes per game.
Since the All-Star Break and the addition of Steve Blake, allowing Jordan Crawford to move to his more natural shooting guard position, Thompson’s minutes have decreased. Thompson has only been playing 31 minutes per game as opposed to 37.6 mpg, the most of any Warrior, in the first half.
The numbers certainly verify an increase in per-minute production. Despite playing 6.6 less minutes, Klay is scoring 17.8 points per game, only 0.5 less than he did in the second half.
Thompson’s percentages of 47.2% from the field and 42.5% from three-point land in the second half certainly trump his first-half percentages of 43.2% and 41.0%.
When asked if fatigue was a factor in Thompson’s shooting slump, teammate Andrew Bogut said, “I don’t look into those stats (miles covered) too much. He’s young, he can handle the work load.
“He’s in his early twenties. I don’t think that’s anything to do with it. Everyone gets tired throughout an NBA season,” Bogut said, “I just think Klay had a bit of a shooting slump and he shot his way out of it.”
Coach Mark Jackson also commented on reasons for Thompson’s second half shooting improvement.
“Probably the rest, the ability to recover, and he scaled down his preparation, as far as in the morning, pre-game,” Jackson said, “When you get to a certain point during the year, there comes a point where you have to scale it down, to make sure you have plenty in your tank, and I think that has benefitted him.”
“I used the All-Star Break to my benefit,” Thompson said on Warriors Weekly Roundtable,”I got off my feet a little bit, hung out with my family, didn’t even pick up a basketball. So it was real good for me, and I was real rejuvenated coming back.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
