Klay vs. Dray: Who's more valuable to the Warriors?

[Jim Naismith]

Klay Thompson vs. Draymond Green

Who's more valuable to the Warriors?

Vote above.

[Dr Spaceman]

Voted Dray, not close because of the way the question is phrased.

Klay Thompson is probably better at basketball than Draymond. But considering how much smaller Klay's role is, and how Dray excels at his to the point he enabled a team to win 73 games, he's unquestionably more valuable IMO. How one chooses to weigh these factors is up to them.

[lorak]

Klay was GREAT in G6 and he is playing elite defense through whole playoffs, but that doesn't change the fact, that Drymond is still more valuable for Warriors. If not Green's unique abilities, which allow him to play even as center on defense and as playmaker on offense, Golden State would be different team and in that case it means worse team. Klay, while unique player on his own, is easier replaceable.

IMO better question would be Klay or Iguodala. I think AI is very underrated right now.

[tsherkin]

Klay was GREAT in G6 and he is playing elite defense through whole playoffs, but that doesn't change the fact, that Drymond is still more valuable for Warriors. If not Green's unique abilities, which allow him to play even as center on defense and as playmaker on offense, Golden State would be different team and in that case it means worse team. Klay, while unique player on his own, is easier replaceable.

IMO better question would be Klay or Iguodala. I think AI is very underrated right now.

Mmmm. This is a tough question for me, because while they're polar opposites in terms of versatility versus specialization, Klay is a significant chunk of their offense, and even more so in the playoffs. His shooting is sort of critical to their offensive attack. This is a tough question because removing either tanks the team.

Draymond is more valuable for the variety of things which he does and Klay more for the one specific thing, but he's also a pretty good defender. I think the correct answer is actually "neither, they have equivalent value with different pathways."

[Jim Naismith]

Voted Dray, not close because of the way the question is phrased.

Klay Thompson is probably better at basketball than Draymond. But considering how much smaller Klay's role is, and how Dray excels at his to the point he enabled a team to win 73 games, he's unquestionably more valuable IMO. How one chooses to weigh these factors is up to them.

For me, it's more of a question of floor vs. ceiling.

Klay gives the Warriors a higher floor as Curry's backup in terms of scoring. (Game 6 is a big illustration of this.)

Draymond gives the Warriors a higher ceiling by exploiting Curry's gravity to lubricate the rest of the Warriors' offense.

[picc]

This is only currently a question because of how they're playing against the Thunder.

I said this in the GB and will say it again here. This is the only team in the league that Klay will look better than Green against. OKC is uniquely equipped to neutralize much of what Green does, and Donovan has maximized that aspect of their roster. Any other team in the league and Green would be a favorite in this comparison, as he was for most of the season leading up to this point.

[East Bay Sports]

You are splitting hairs. Against OKC, Klay. Draymond seems to have a really tough time against their length and they don't have a post player for him to erase.

But it all depends on the night and the team. They are 2A and 2B. the team wins no hardware without both of them.

Gun to my head? Draymond. But its as close as you can get and arguments can be made either way.

edit: I see the poster above me made a similar point before I could.

[Kabookalu]

The way I see it, Green's role is more important, but Klay excels at his role more. I usually pick the guy whose role is more important, but Klay's shooting puts the Warriors offense into new heights. Without Green but with Klay, they're lacking a valuable component to their offense that makes it function, but still possess that war room full of firepower thanks to Klay. Without Klay but with Green, they have their bases covered, but they don't have the guy that pushes it way over the top.

Too tough to call.

[Quotatious]

Draymond, he does a lot more than Klay. Obviously Thompson has been playing a lot better than Green in the OKC series, but looking at this season as a whole, Green is clearly better. Green makes plays, defends, rebounds, can score decently, provides spacing as a bigman. He's basically a jack-of-all-trades, and master of one (defense). Thompson doesn't do nearly as many things.

I strongly disagree with lorak that Thompson is playing "elite" defense in the playoffs. Good, but nothing more than that. What's really special is his offense so far - yesterday, JulesWinnfield posted a stat that puts Klay in company of strong MVP candidates like '84 Bird, '92 Malone, '12 Durant, '14 LeBron, '15 Harden, '15 Curry as one of just a few players who averaged at least 26 ppg on 60% TS for 16 playoff games or more. He'll never even come close to accomplishing any significant achievement like that on defense. Just like Durant - even if he's playing really good defense, he still impacts the game mostly on offense, there should never be any doubt about that.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Offensively, I give Klay the edge.

Defensively, draymond is the difference between a top 13 defensive team and a top 5 one

So it's draymond in terms of valuable by a good ampunt