At the Golden State Warriors‘ Media Day prior to the start of the season, Klay Thompson said fans could expect a lot more of him this season.
After being plagued by poor decision-making and inexplicable misses at the rim for most of last year, he promised that confidence would be key to making the next step.
This season through 11 games, Klay is averaging a team-best 20.5 points per game on 53.1 percent shooting from the field.
If you read my post regarding Thompson’s growth in the preseason, his success is just confirmation that the Warriors shooting guard is following through.
En route to his stellar offensive numbers, Klay has shown an expanded post game and greater confidence when finishing at the rim, and become a vastly superior all-around scorer.
He’s gone from around 50 percent at the rim last season to already shooting better than 70 percent this year
Whereas Thompson was at times just a spot-up shooter last season, he can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket
Thompson has been a particularly special player at home in Oracle Arena.
In five games in Oakland this year, the third-year player has scored 25 or more four times, and he hasn’t shot below 58 percent either.
The lone low-scoring game was a 14-point performance in a blowout of the Detroit Pistons, in which Thompson still managed a 6-9 shooting mark.
Thompson has been a key cog in each of the Warriors wins at home. He’s managed to make a significantly bigger impact on offense without sacrificing effort on the defensive end.
No game has been a better example of that than his 27-points against the Oklahoma City Thunder, in which he spent significant amounts of time guarding All-Star Russell Westbrook.
But there’s so much more to like about Klay this season. His turnovers are down. His confidence is up. He’s among just three NBA players averaging 20+ points at better than 50 percent shooting. The other two: Blake Griffin and LeBron James.
All of that, plus he’s still one of the deadliest 3-point shooters the NBA has ever seen. He’s already 15th on the All-Time list at 41.4 percent and is shooting even better this season, at 50 percent, while leading the league in 3-pointers made.
Mark Jackson has constantly talked up Thompson’s ability since he arrived in Oakland. From the declaration that Klay and Stephen Curry were the best shooting back-court in history to the claim that Klay has now arrived as one of the top 5 shooting guards in the league, Jackson has shown a belief in Thompson that sometimes even Klay has not.
I can’t say how big an impact that trust has helped Klay. Only he knows, but from where he was at times last season to where he is now, there’s been incredible growth.
Jump to tonight. Curry is out on his own bobble-head night, and the Warriors are playing the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that demolished the Warriors on at the FedEx Forum earlier this month. Perhaps for the first time, it’s Klay that’ll be looked to to fill the role of lead scorer.
Given his performance at Oracle this season, and the absence of the Grizzlies best defender Tony Allen, there’s no reason to think Klay won’t have another big night. Except pressure. He’s not always handled it well in the past, making poor decisions and hoisting off-balance shots.
He’s eliminated much of that this season, but improvement doesn’t always come without setbacks.
Tonight is a chance for him to take another step forward. To prove once again that Jackson isn’t just blustering, and that Klay is the real deal. The pastor has been right on the money so far.
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