Early this week Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson was named Western Conference Player of the Week. Fresh off a career high 41 point game, and a brand new contract extention worth $70 million, the fourth year player is being recognized for all of his hard work.
What does this weekly honor really mean in the NBA?
LetsGoWarriors.com did a little investigating to find out how important winning player of the week really is, and if it might be a hint at a possible trip to New York for Thompson this February for this year’s All-Star game.
Last year 12 different players won the player of the week award in the Western Conference. Of those players, only half of them were granted an All-Star appearance. There was even a familiar All-Star starter who did not take home the award. Stephen Curry did not receive a player of the week award once last season.
Also short on hardware was Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, as well as Chris Paul.
In the East, it was much of the same story. Of the 19 different players to receive the award, only 9 of them were All-Stars last year.
In the past 3 years, only two different shooting guards have made the Western Conference All-Star team. James Harden and Kobe Bryant averaged around 25 and 27 points per game respectively, in the years in which they saw All-Star appearances.
If Klay has his sights set on New York this year, will he have to put up those kinds of gaudy numbers?
Ethan Sherwod Strauss from ESPN.com believes with Steve Kerr’s new offense, an All-Star birth could be in Klay’s near future:
At the Golden State Warriors‘ practice facility, coach Steve Kerr said something that had merit but little statistical basis: “Klay [Thompson] is at the point of his career where he’s very close to being an All-Star.”
Kerr is not a stupid person, and he’s not exactly prone to happy hyperbole either. One jarring difference from last season is this coach’s candor in discussing shortcomings. You hear terms like “bad practice,” confessions of broken plays, admissions of vulnerability that the previous coach felt too assailed to reveal. While the last guy made basketball seem like a war conquered by confidence, the current one makes it sound like an all-obsessing job, fraught with fallibility.
So how can the Warriors’ coach believe that a player who has never notched an above-league average PER stands on the cusp of stardom? How can Kerr be so confident in Thompson when his shooting guard lags in so many categories outside of points?
A lot of it rests on the idea that Thompson can quite literally choose to be a much better player. As in, he can take more of the shots he’s incredible at, and fewer of the shots that give little reward. The way Kerr put it after the “All-Star” assessment: “What I talk to him about is getting greedy, but not with bad shots. Getting greedy with good shots.”
Should DubNation even be excited about Thompson’s player of the week honor?
Of course!
It is always special when a Warrior player is nationally recognized, but earning this award doesn’t mean all that much when it comes to an All-Star appearance.
Although the season is very young, Thompson is already leading the league in scoring with 29.7 points per game, and getting to the line 4 times as much as he has any other season. If he can keep that pace up, he might as well book his ticket to the big apple right now. Only time will tell if Klay can keep playing at this high level and earn his first career All-Star appearance, but he is off to a great start.
Thompson and the Warriors will be back on the floor tonight when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers for the first time this season, at Oracle Arena (#Roaracle). The game can be seen on ESPN, and as always, @letsgowarriors will have the in game live tweet.
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