The Golden State Warriors aren’t the best team in the NBA just because of the star power Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry bring to the table. It takes a whole team full of versatile parts to buy into the system of winning no matter their role. Starting shooting guard Klay Thompson is a prime example of a player that takes a lesser role to help the team function as it should.
While Thompson was the second scoring option for Golden State the past few years, all of that changed last offseason when Kevin Durant decided to head to Oakland. The sharpshooting Thompson was one of the players expected to be directly affected by the arrival of Durant, but in the end, it all worked out as the Warriors were able to capture their second championship trophy in the past three seasons.
During the recent Warriors championship parade, Thompson touched on how winning overcomes stats in his book every time. Following from Marcus Thompson II of The Mercury News:
“At the end of the day, I’ve tasted winning,” Thompson said, looking down through a his sunglasses. “No stats can ever overcome that. I’d rather win these championships and score no points than have 60-point games and 37-point quarters. These championships are everything to me.”
Klay Thompson will have his free agent decision to make in the summer of 2019 when he hits the unrestricted market. He could easily go elsewhere and be a focal point of a team’s offense but why would he?
Based on his recent comments, Thompson knows winning rings is everything in this league and no team gives him a better shot to do just that year in and year out than the Warriors. And it’s not like his stats took a major dip like everyone expected them to either. In fact, his points per game average actually increased slightly from 22.1 to 22.3 on an almost identical amount of shot attempts per game.
The perceived fewer touches don’t seem to bother Thompson and nor should they as long as the Warriors remain atop the NBA totem pole.
