klay thompson slump (Photo: Ryan Brown / LetsGoWarriors.com)
By now, everyone knows Golden State Warriors third-year shooting guard Klay Thompson is mired in a shooting slump. It’s well-documented, as three Warriors beatwriters wrote about Thompson over the past few days, without Thompson even being available for media.
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Despite his recent slump – he started trending downward seven games ago and then completely fell off in the past four – Thompson is producing slightly better than his career averages.
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The third-year guard is posting 18.7 points per game on 40.9 percent three-point shooting. He has averaged 15.7 points on 40.7 percent three-point shooting for his career.
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“Klay is young and is still figuring things out,” center Andrew Bogut said. “He’s a little down right now because he’s in a bit of a shooting slump, but we have the utmost confidence that he’ll get it back. We know, and he knows, that he’s one of the best shooters in the NBA, and that doesn’t happen by accident.”
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group:
Thompson not only leads the team averaging a career-high 37.9 minutes per game in starting all 48 games but also leads the NBA with 125.2 miles covered on the court this season, according to SportVU.
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“He’ll get out of it,” center Andrew Bogut said. “We’re almost 50 games into the season, and guys’ legs are starting to feel like concrete, and it gets tough to make shots sometimes when you’re really sore.”
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Coach Mark Jackson said Thompson’s shot was the least of his concerns, with that skill already having made the former first-round pick a “top-five shooting guard in the world.”
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Jackson noted Thompson, even while struggling on offense, played defense at Utah that contributed to limiting Jazz leading scorer Gordon Hayward to eight points.
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“He’ll be fine,” said Jackson, who later tweeted out videos of Thompson swishing 3-pointers in an evening session at the practice facility. “We put a lot of demand on him defensively, offensively. It’s a long year, but he does so much on the floor.
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“You go through periods like this, but I get tweets and people saying, ‘Put him on the bench.’ That’s not going to happen.”
Steve Berman of the Bay Area Sports Guy:
Curry has some advice for Thompson on how to handle playing so many minutes (Thompson is tied for fourth in minutes played with 37.9 per game; Curry is right behind him at 37.7 mpg).
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“It’s his third year and he’s played a lot of minutes and had some responsibilities on both sides of the floor. Just to make sure he understands he’s going to get heavy legs at a couple times during the season. Just push through it,” said Curry. “Know that if he does what he’s got to do off the court to get back rejuvenated for each game, with his legs, he’ll get back to that level of production we’re used to.”
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Curry is first in threes made this year with 153, and Thompson is in second with 142. The former described how shooters like Thompson and himself shy away from using the s-word.
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“Everybody goes through some slumps. It’s going to happen. Everybody else can say it’s a slump, but as players we’re never going to say we’re in a slump. You always feel like that next shot is going in,” said Curry.
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“Obviously in Utah he definitely thought it was (going in). That’s the confidence I would expect him to have, I’d have the same.”
The theme is that, like with Harrison Barnes‘s recent slump, “He’ll be fine.”
It’s also not the first time with Thompson. Last November, Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group also covered a Klay Slump:
In the four games since that Denver game, after which Thompson reportedly left the arena in his uniform, Thompson is shooting 23.4 percent from the field. He’s made just three of his past 20 from 3-point range (15 percent).
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Thompson has gotten a lot of good looks, no doubt. But many of his shots have seemed forced — 3-pointers early in the shot clock, well-defended pull-ups, head-down drives to the basket.
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He said he’s been through a slump like this before, during his sophomore season at Washington State. How he got out of that is how he said he plans to get out of his current slump, which has him shooting 33 percent from the field so far this season. He shot 44.3 percent from the field as a rookie last season, 41.4 percent from 3-point range.
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“Keep shooting,” he said. “It’s all mental. You can’t let it get to you. These first 11 games, I haven’t been making shots, but I’m all right. I’ll be fine.”
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Thompson said he’s making a concerted effort to not let his poor shooting affect the other areas of the game. But he is a shooter, and it stands to reason missing shots doesn’t sit well with him. However, he’s doing his best to not let it.
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Sitting in the near-empty visiting locker room in Dallas, Thompson zipped up his jacket, paused and took a deep breath while trying to find the right words to explain why he’s not concerned.
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“My shot got me here. It’s not going to abandon me now,” Thompson said, rubbing his hands on his legs as if to wipe off his shooting funk. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.”
If history is any indication, Klay should be able to get out of his slump soon. One thing’s for certain, as #DubNation’s Number One Fan (yes, we suppose it is possible for a player to be a fan of the team he’s on), right now it is likely no one feels more anxious about it than he does.
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