As Klay Thompson continues to make the Golden State Warriors brass look like geniuses following their decision to ink Thompson to a four-year contract extension rather than trading him for Kevin Love this past summer, one can only wonder where Thompson’s ceiling currently stands.
Maybe Warriors head coach Steve Kerr already has an idea. Just before the regular season began, Kerr told the media what he thinks Thompson can do better on and what goals he should aim for in his career.
“I think just understanding that the game can be easier for him than it has been,” Kerr said. “In other words, getting better shots. I think the last couple of years he has been great, but he has taken difficult shots. And I told him a couple weeks ago -– I think we were in Kansas City -– that he should think about being a 50-40-90 player.”
The NBA’s “50-40-90 club” is a rare, but a profound achievement for players who have had a shooting percentage at or above 50% from the field, 40% from three-point territory and 90% from the free throw line over the course of a NBA season. Players must also make a minimum amount of shots in each category — 300 field goals, 55 threes and 125 free throws — in order to qualify.
Currently there are only six players in the history of the NBA who reached the venerated 50-40-90 thresholds: Larry Bird (twice), Mark Price, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash (four times), Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Durant.
Miller, the only “2”-guard in the list above, reached the mark in 1993-94, his seventh year in the NBA, when his Indiana Pacers lost in seven games to the Eastern Conference Finals to the New York Knicks, who then lost in seven games to the Houston Rockets in the 1993-94 NBA Finals.
Thompson is in his fourth year.
Kerr believes that if Thompson can get to the free throw line more, not only will his free throw percentage go up, but that mentality will eventually translate into a higher field goal percentage as well.
Grant Cohn of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat <a href="“>also covered Kerr’s report that he had talked to Thompson about striving to reach the 50-40-90 numbers:
Before this preseason, Thompson never had come close to shooting 50 percent. His career shooting percentage in the regular season is 43.5, and in the playoffs it’s 42.6. He tends to take long, tough shots instead of driving to the basket for layups and getting fouled. He averaged only 2.3 free throw attempts last season, pretty passive. If he averages six free throw attempts this season, he can boost his scoring average to 23 points per game no sweat.
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