Golden State Warriors adviser Jerry West appeared on a Warriors live stream for Training Camp Day Two yesterday, speaking with co-hosts Laurence Scott and Jim Barnett. Meanwhile, three writers at ESPN.com released a video podcast.
The subject of shooting guard Klay Thompson came up. Ironically, while West gave Thompson a glowing review of Thompson’s basketball skill set, at least two of the three writers at ESPN TrueHoop TV chastised it on the same day.
“To me, Klay Thompson is a completely different player,” West said, “You watch him now, he gets the ball to the basket. He was pretty much a jump shooter. One time here in practice yesterday, and we’ve only had — this is our 3rd practice today — yesterday, I thought he was by far the best player.
“He’s getting the ball to the basket, making passes, and he can defend,” West added, “I talked to some of the people with this team and I think one of the things they were all surprised at is just how low maintenance — I mean, he’s doesn’t talk, okay? He just plays and he loves to play and he’s made an enormous improvement.”
You could say TrueHoop’s assessment was the complete opposite.
“He’s a one dimensional player. His defense is overrated. Yes, he can guard point guards, but that doesn’t mean that he’s a shut down — people over-value his versatility that he can guard opposing point guards,” one TrueHoop writer said, “All the metrics say that he is average on the defensive end and another thing is, he doesn’t do anything but shoot threes.
“Guess who passed the least amount of their possessions in the NBA? Passed the ball fewer times than Nick Young ‘Swaggy P’ (Young’s self-proclaimed nickname). Fewer times than Swaggy P. 49% of (Thompson’s) possessions ended in a pass, the lowest — the lowest — rate in the NBA,” continued the writer, “I don’t understand why people love this guy when he is the biggest ball-hog on the wing that we have in the NBA. He doesn’t pass. Every time that he gets the ball, he’s shooting and that’s great because he’s a three-point shooter, but he also likes to go off the dribble and he doesn’t look for anyone else and he’s a black hole there.”
The disparagement continued.
“Secondly, he’s 6-7, but he rebounds like he’s 6-1. He’s the worst rebounder at his height in the NBA, so we have a guy who doesn’t pass, doesn’t rebound, and is overrated on the defensive end, but he makes a ton of threes and I like that he spaces the floor, but when he wasn’t on the floor with Stephen Curry, the Warriors got beat by 22 points last season,” piled on the writer, “So he needs him more than Steph Curry needs Klay. So I think he’s overrated.”
A second TrueHoop writer out of the three said he agreed.
West, meanwhile, clearly would disagree with that sentiment.
“They talk about backcourts in the league,” West said as the Warriors live stream concluded, “I don’t know how you could trade this backcourt for any backcourt in the league. They’re young, they like each other, they feed off of each other, and I think Klay’s defensive ability sets him apart from other two-guards in the league.”
(Photo: via basket4us.com)
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