Hey y’all, Warriors fan with a few reasons why there’s zero reason to be worried about Klay s 2nd preseason game:
• There was mention of him having back tightness after the last game and it sounded like he only did a walkthrough of practice the next day and didn’t participate in the live action portion. I bring this up because every single one of his shots tonight were incredibly stiff and/or short with no lift – even his floaters were flat. He didn’t look like he was activating his base at all on his shots so I have a feeling his back wasn’t 100% this game. • He’s a biiiiig rhythm guy. He does not gel offensively in games where the flow is very herky jerky and erratic, and the Clippers game was very much this. Is it less than ideal that he can’t catch a feel for his shot under these circumstances? No doubt, but that’s just always been how he is. It’s why pace with ball movement is the environment he excels in so much. Tonight had plenty of pace but the ball movement and flow just wasn’t there. • The most important point I advise Mavs fans to continuously remind themselves of: Klay Thompson starts every single season slowly. Again, it’s just how it and always has been. Case in point: his career average 3P% is 41.3%…his career average 3P% in the month of October? 34.6%. A couple more examples: • In 2016-17, he averaged 31.3% from 3 through the first 11 games of the season, which included games where he went 0/6 and 0/7 from 3. He ended the season with his highest scoring season of his career averaging 22.3 ppg on 47% overall and 41.4% from 3. • In 2015-16, his second highest scoring season in his career in which he averaged 22.1 ppg on 47% overall and 42.5% from 3, he started the season shooting 29% from 3 and in the spring of that year, had games where he shot 0/7 and 0/8 from 3.Obviously those are season in his prime, and he’s no longer in his prime, but point is he also looked abysmal for stretches to start seasons that ended up being some of the statistical best of his career. Because again, that’s Klay lol it just comes with the territory. In the same way that he needs to find a flow and rhythm in game, he needs to settle into the rhythm of the season. When you throw in a completely new environment and system, you end up with awkward growing pains on top of a completely normal for Klay build up to start the season. But as the above shows, even beyond his completely normal for Klay slow starts, he has had a number of games even at the peak of his prime where he went 0/6 or 7 or 8 from 3 because he’s a shooter and it happens, even to one of the best to ever lace ‘em up. All of this is to say that him going 0fer is not a sign that he’s washed or doesn’t have it anymore, I promise. He started slow even in his prime. Lastly, the Warriors’ first preseason game was against this Clippers team (who is annoyingly long and obnoxious on defense for being such a wildly mediocre team, and I say that as a fan of an even more mediocre team lol) and Steph, who like Klay in tonight’s game didn’t have any other spacers on the floor with him, was in a very similar hell that Klay was in tonight. Nothing but contested or awkward chuck it up out of rhythm because they finally got a hint of space shots. He also couldn’t create space to save his life and his final stat line ended up being 9 pts on 2/8 overall, 0/4 from 3, and 5/5 FTs with 3 TOs and 2 assists. This Clippers team is just seemingly a shit matchup for over 30 shooters who command doubles and being face guarded and who are without other offensive weapons on the court to take away some of that attention. Honestly, I genuinely just didn’t think nor expect other fanbases to be familiar with his in-seasonal (or pre-seasonal as it were) patterns, which is what my main point was with my post. My bad if that’s a miscalculation on my part and kudos to those of you guys who were already familiar with them, seriously. Klay Thompson’s defensive highlights in the 18 first half minutes he played in his Dallas Mavs debut.
Klay has been labeled a “defensive liability” these days and while that’s always been greatly exaggerated, he looks to be on a mission this year to prove just how exaggerated that was. I think what we’ll see with his defense this season will show just how much his dip defensively had more to do with the Warriors’ roster construction the last couple of years on both sides of the ball – he’ll now be playing with two bigs that are legit rim protectors which is an underrated factor when it comes to perimeter defense, ie they can put a lot more pressure on the ball and close out tighter than they would otherwise be able to, & he also won’t have to worry about needing to put up 2nd option-like numbers on the offensive end. He’ll be in a more Steph/KD/Klay type Warriors role, which I think will help him and the Mavs out a lot. In his post-game media session last night he said the following, which alluded to that:
> “It’s really nice when you have such great offensive players like Luka and Kai, because you don’t feel like you have to shoulder the load as much on that side of the ball, so you can focus on guarding guys…I’m just challenging the ball handler and switching on to whoever. I take great pride in guarding.”
1 Comment
Hey y’all, Warriors fan with a few reasons why there’s zero reason to be worried about Klay s 2nd preseason game:
• There was mention of him having back tightness after the last game and it sounded like he only did a walkthrough of practice the next day and didn’t participate in the live action portion. I bring this up because every single one of his shots tonight were incredibly stiff and/or short with no lift – even his floaters were flat. He didn’t look like he was activating his base at all on his shots so I have a feeling his back wasn’t 100% this game.
• He’s a biiiiig rhythm guy. He does not gel offensively in games where the flow is very herky jerky and erratic, and the Clippers game was very much this. Is it less than ideal that he can’t catch a feel for his shot under these circumstances? No doubt, but that’s just always been how he is. It’s why pace with ball movement is the environment he excels in so much. Tonight had plenty of pace but the ball movement and flow just wasn’t there.
• The most important point I advise Mavs fans to continuously remind themselves of: Klay Thompson starts every single season slowly. Again, it’s just how it and always has been. Case in point: his career average 3P% is 41.3%…his career average 3P% in the month of October? 34.6%. A couple more examples:
• In 2016-17, he averaged 31.3% from 3 through the first 11 games of the season, which included games where he went 0/6 and 0/7 from 3. He ended the season with his highest scoring season of his career averaging 22.3 ppg on 47% overall and 41.4% from 3.
• In 2015-16, his second highest scoring season in his career in which he averaged 22.1 ppg on 47% overall and 42.5% from 3, he started the season shooting 29% from 3 and in the spring of that year, had games where he shot 0/7 and 0/8 from 3.Obviously those are season in his prime, and he’s no longer in his prime, but point is he also looked abysmal for stretches to start seasons that ended up being some of the statistical best of his career. Because again, that’s Klay lol it just comes with the territory. In the same way that he needs to find a flow and rhythm in game, he needs to settle into the rhythm of the season. When you throw in a completely new environment and system, you end up with awkward growing pains on top of a completely normal for Klay build up to start the season. But as the above shows, even beyond his completely normal for Klay slow starts, he has had a number of games even at the peak of his prime where he went 0/6 or 7 or 8 from 3 because he’s a shooter and it happens, even to one of the best to ever lace ‘em up. All of this is to say that him going 0fer is not a sign that he’s washed or doesn’t have it anymore, I promise. He started slow even in his prime. Lastly, the Warriors’ first preseason game was against this Clippers team (who is annoyingly long and obnoxious on defense for being such a wildly mediocre team, and I say that as a fan of an even more mediocre team lol) and Steph, who like Klay in tonight’s game didn’t have any other spacers on the floor with him, was in a very similar hell that Klay was in tonight. Nothing but contested or awkward chuck it up out of rhythm because they finally got a hint of space shots. He also couldn’t create space to save his life and his final stat line ended up being 9 pts on 2/8 overall, 0/4 from 3, and 5/5 FTs with 3 TOs and 2 assists. This Clippers team is just seemingly a shit matchup for over 30 shooters who command doubles and being face guarded and who are without other offensive weapons on the court to take away some of that attention. Honestly, I genuinely just didn’t think nor expect other fanbases to be familiar with his in-seasonal (or pre-seasonal as it were) patterns, which is what my main point was with my post. My bad if that’s a miscalculation on my part and kudos to those of you guys who were already familiar with them, seriously. Klay Thompson’s defensive highlights in the 18 first half minutes he played in his Dallas Mavs debut.
Shoutout to [Panda Hank](https://x.com/pandahank41/status/1844549582799155530?s=46) for pulling these.
Klay has been labeled a “defensive liability” these days and while that’s always been greatly exaggerated, he looks to be on a mission this year to prove just how exaggerated that was. I think what we’ll see with his defense this season will show just how much his dip defensively had more to do with the Warriors’ roster construction the last couple of years on both sides of the ball – he’ll now be playing with two bigs that are legit rim protectors which is an underrated factor when it comes to perimeter defense, ie they can put a lot more pressure on the ball and close out tighter than they would otherwise be able to, & he also won’t have to worry about needing to put up 2nd option-like numbers on the offensive end. He’ll be in a more Steph/KD/Klay type Warriors role, which I think will help him and the Mavs out a lot. In his post-game media session last night he said the following, which alluded to that:
> “It’s really nice when you have such great offensive players like Luka and Kai, because you don’t feel like you have to shoulder the load as much on that side of the ball, so you can focus on guarding guys…I’m just challenging the ball handler and switching on to whoever. I take great pride in guarding.”