is Klay done?

[Jerry Maine]

Double

[DAWill1128]

Klays been playing really well the last two months.

Last 19 games
26 PPG
45% FG
44% 3P

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

+32 Good Klay vs the Rockets makes the Waariors a lot better than -7 bad Klay vs the Lakers.
Klay is hot and cold but even though we can’t depend on Klay, Klay is definitely and asset.
With Klay we can win some games that we deserve to lose.

[Dubs 707]

Yeah trade klay he's done......


(Sarcasm)

[DAWill1128]

It's been a crazy season. Wiggins and Curry have missed so many games. We've played a lot of minutes with guys without a lot of NBA experience. At this point getting into the postseason seems like we are riding on Klays shooting. It seems like Klays been just willing us to wins with good shooting nights.

[KevinMcreynolds]

“Most 3PM in the NBA since Jan. 1st”

[Sleepy51]

I don’t know if it’s chicken or egg, but one of the most positive developments has been Klay is now policing his body language when things go wrong. He’s not walking back up court and he is throwing his hands around a lot less after mistakes (his own or others).

Apparently he had an epiphany about what a jerk he was being and how it was affecting the unit around him. It’s been good to see the change.

All of the vets have had to grapple with their responsibilities as leaders this year. They struggled with it early on from the moment they decided not to punish Draymond for the punch. I think for years they have been able to take it for granted that leadership was someone else’s job (Dray, Iggy, David West.) looney was first to answer the bell. Steph has always led with his play but has been finding his voice in other ways. Klay was just a mess and a detriment often by example and his play.

Understandably Klay has been on his own unique journey back from injury but maybe these games without Curry, without Dray has given him the space to grow into being a true vet. I hope this keeps trending the way it’s going.

[Onus]

I don’t know if it’s chicken or egg, but one of the most positive developments has been Klay is now policing his body language when things go wrong. He’s not walking back up court and he is throwing his hands around a lot less after mistakes (his own or others).

Apparently he had an epiphany about what a jerk he was being and how it was affecting the unit around him. It’s been good to see the change.

All of the vets have had to grapple with their responsibilities as leaders this year. They struggled with it early on from the moment they decided not to punish Draymond for the punch. I think for years they have been able to take it for granted that leadership was someone else’s job (Dray, Iggy, David West.) looney was first to answer the bell. Steph has always led with his play but has been finding his voice in other ways. Klay was just a mess and a detriment often by example and his play.

Understandably Klay has been on his own unique journey back from injury but maybe these games without Curry, without Dray has given him the space to grow into being a true vet. I hope this keeps trending the way it’s going.

For some reason at the beginning of the year the vet players were expecting to win instantly and as soon as something bad would happen they would tailspin and all the bad body language would start to compound. They would be visibly irritated and the other team would go on a run. The team now does seem like they're able to come back from it and are continuing to fight through it.

[Sleepy51]

I don’t know if it’s chicken or egg, but one of the most positive developments has been Klay is now policing his body language when things go wrong. He’s not walking back up court and he is throwing his hands around a lot less after mistakes (his own or others).

Apparently he had an epiphany about what a jerk he was being and how it was affecting the unit around him. It’s been good to see the change.

All of the vets have had to grapple with their responsibilities as leaders this year. They struggled with it early on from the moment they decided not to punish Draymond for the punch. I think for years they have been able to take it for granted that leadership was someone else’s job (Dray, Iggy, David West.) looney was first to answer the bell. Steph has always led with his play but has been finding his voice in other ways. Klay was just a mess and a detriment often by example and his play.

Understandably Klay has been on his own unique journey back from injury but maybe these games without Curry, without Dray has given him the space to grow into being a true vet. I hope this keeps trending the way it’s going.

For some reason at the beginning of the year the vet players were expecting to win instantly and as soon as something bad would happen they would tailspin and all the bad body language would start to compound. They would be visibly irritated and the other team would go on a run. The team now does seem like they're able to come back from it and are continuing to fight through it.

I would say frankly that they were all playing and carrying themselves with a sense of entitlement and apartness from the rest of their team. They certainly weren't emulating the support and sacrifice that their vets had modeled for them when they were the young players.

This season has been Pat Riley's "Disease of More" and hopefully they have learned from it and can get to a better place if not for this playoff run, for next year.

[Twinkie defense]

Klay Thompson is carrying a sorry Warriors team

[wco81]

This is why dynasties are difficult to achieve and to sustain a decade of championship contention.

Core players age out and then earn too much to build roster depth. The older stars are more prone to injuries so thin rosters are vulnerable. We saw this in 2018-19.

Warriors could probably use a lot of veteran rotation players in the $4-8 million range. But they have to go instead with minimum salary players. Sometimes they get lucky, with Zaza and Javale and then Payton, Bjelica and OPJ last year. This year they found a good one in DDV but he's making $4.5 million with a PO for $4.725 next year. He hasn't made money, like GP2 before him, so he's not going to stay for that money.

Team got too hooked on these minimum salary players because of the luxury taxes. A team like Milwaukee cultivated low-salary players like Connaughton and Porter, also Lopez, who all took probably below market salaries for a couple of years until the team had their Bird Rights and gave them more money to keep them around. Will be interesting to see what they do with Middleton after the season and now apparently some big ownership change.


The other day, some article was touting the parity in the NBA because you have all those teams in the WC bunched up and in contention for the playoffs.

[NeoWarriors]

[watch1958]

I’m curious what they are doing differently to make good shots available for Klay. We know he will take what is there, so setting him up is important.

[wco81]

I’m curious what they are doing differently to make good shots available for Klay. We know he will take what is there, so setting him up is important.

He took and made some contested shots last night when they needed his scoring.

He seems to be getting good lift now, compared to the start of the season, though his overall FG% is a couple of percentage points below his career average, while his 3P% is about at the career average.

One thing is I see more follow through with his lower arm as he releases, especially on some longer shots. The classic form I recall before the injuries is just the snap of the wrist, not much lower arm movement on the follow through.

Yet whatever changes there might be to his mechanics, the results are similar to before, though January and February have been his best 2 months in his career, probably from scoring volume.

[DonaldSanders]

What should we do with Klay? Are we putting him in the wrong lineups? It is clear that Poole/Klay have a rough time together in terms of 2-man combos. If they aren't shooting lights out, then the bad defense they both play is a huge issue. How do we get more catch and shoot Klay, and less dribble dribble Klank? Catch and Shoot Klay is still VERY good at that, one of the best in the league in fact. But there seems to be a disconnect where if Klay can't get his 3P shot off, he settles for terrible 2p shots instead of passing out.

Some data that was interesting to me. When I read your post, my first reaction was that Klay has been playing much better as the season went on. However, while his TS% is higher in the last 30 days, it really isn't much higher. .555 for the season, .565 for the last 30 days. Notably, a few of the other Warriors have improved substantially. Wiggins and Kuminga I noticed along the way.

Klay has always been streaky, and the answer has always been, "You gotta let shooters shoot." But by now, we have a lot of data that he just isn't shooting as well as he used to. And if you aren't as good a shooter, shooting as much as he is just isn't appropriate. Lots of players find that if their shot isn't falling, they find other ways to contribute. And this might be the biggest gotcha. I anecdotally feel like his defense is improving as the season progresses, but still is definitely not where it was pre-injury. The other thing that was glaring to me (since I couldn't find a good source and had to calculate his TS% for the last 30 days by hand...) is that he's just not going to the line. In the last 30 days, he has 24 FTA in 11 games. Basically 2 shots a game. He's still a great free throw shooter, but it doesn't help much if he never goes to the line.

If he isn't making shots like he used to, he needs to do more than just continuing to take drifting 3 point shots and such. Or move the ball around more.

So since we discussed this 2 weeks ago, his TS has climbed even more. I'm inclined to say it's a real trend upwards; his shot selection had been better and he has hit more 2s lately. I don't know if he's reducing his overall 2pt attempts or what, but he has climbed up to 57% for the season now, close to the league average. Klay should be able to pull that up a bit more, and for how often this season he's been asked to be the #1 option (and his early struggles), I think it's good. I've never viewed Klay as a #1 option guy, more as a top end #2 offensive option, so if he pulls up to 58% for the season or close to it, I'd say that's pretty good given the circumstances. Certainly him heating up towards the playoffs is exactly what we need.

I’m curious what they are doing differently to make good shots available for Klay. We know he will take what is there, so setting him up is important.

Yeah I'm wondering about this too. My earlier quote above speaks to shot selection/availability being the biggest factor for him; if he can get/take the right shots, he's still a nuclear weapon. I know we'll have to play against better teams which might make it tougher for him, but he's also going to have Steph/Wiggs drawing attention. I'm guessing it's a combination of Klay's choices and something schematic Kerr is doing, but I'm not good enough at recognizing/remembering different plays to identify it. Maybe one of the Xs and Os experts here can chime in?

So I think it is at this point I have to eat a little crow with Klay; I thought he should be a top end 6th man that plays more when he is hot but he's showing that can wait at least another year or two. The most convincing part to me is that now he is playing back to backs: earlier in the year there were murmurs of knee soreness, and some nights he looked old/dead legged. I thought fewer minutes would help him, but he seems to have worked himself into shape and overcome whatever soreness issues he was having. He doesn't look dead legged anymore, and playing b2b shows he has stamina still.

[Crazy-Canuck]

What should we do with Klay? Are we putting him in the wrong lineups? It is clear that Poole/Klay have a rough time together in terms of 2-man combos. If they aren't shooting lights out, then the bad defense they both play is a huge issue. How do we get more catch and shoot Klay, and less dribble dribble Klank? Catch and Shoot Klay is still VERY good at that, one of the best in the league in fact. But there seems to be a disconnect where if Klay can't get his 3P shot off, he settles for terrible 2p shots instead of passing out.

Some data that was interesting to me. When I read your post, my first reaction was that Klay has been playing much better as the season went on. However, while his TS% is higher in the last 30 days, it really isn't much higher. .555 for the season, .565 for the last 30 days. Notably, a few of the other Warriors have improved substantially. Wiggins and Kuminga I noticed along the way.

Klay has always been streaky, and the answer has always been, "You gotta let shooters shoot." But by now, we have a lot of data that he just isn't shooting as well as he used to. And if you aren't as good a shooter, shooting as much as he is just isn't appropriate. Lots of players find that if their shot isn't falling, they find other ways to contribute. And this might be the biggest gotcha. I anecdotally feel like his defense is improving as the season progresses, but still is definitely not where it was pre-injury. The other thing that was glaring to me (since I couldn't find a good source and had to calculate his TS% for the last 30 days by hand...) is that he's just not going to the line. In the last 30 days, he has 24 FTA in 11 games. Basically 2 shots a game. He's still a great free throw shooter, but it doesn't help much if he never goes to the line.

If he isn't making shots like he used to, he needs to do more than just continuing to take drifting 3 point shots and such. Or move the ball around more.

So since we discussed this 2 weeks ago, his TS has climbed even more. I'm inclined to say it's a real trend upwards; his shot selection had been better and he has hit more 2s lately. I don't know if he's reducing his overall 2pt attempts or what, but he has climbed up to 57% for the season now, close to the league average. Klay should be able to pull that up a bit more, and for how often this season he's been asked to be the #1 option (and his early struggles), I think it's good. I've never viewed Klay as a #1 option guy, more as a top end #2 offensive option, so if he pulls up to 58% for the season or close to it, I'd say that's pretty good given the circumstances. Certainly him heating up towards the playoffs is exactly what we need.

I’m curious what they are doing differently to make good shots available for Klay. We know he will take what is there, so setting him up is important.

Yeah I'm wondering about this too. My earlier quote above speaks to shot selection/availability being the biggest factor for him; if he can get/take the right shots, he's still a nuclear weapon. I know we'll have to play against better teams which might make it tougher for him, but he's also going to have Steph/Wiggs drawing attention. I'm guessing it's a combination of Klay's choices and something schematic Kerr is doing, but I'm not good enough at recognizing/remembering different plays to identify it. Maybe one of the Xs and Os experts here can chime in?

So I think it is at this point I have to eat a little crow with Klay; I thought he should be a top end 6th man that plays more when he is hot but he's showing that can wait at least another year or two. The most convincing part to me is that now he is playing back to backs: earlier in the year there were murmurs of knee soreness, and some nights he looked old/dead legged. I thought fewer minutes would help him, but he seems to have worked himself into shape and overcome whatever soreness issues he was having. He doesn't look dead legged anymore, and playing b2b shows he has stamina still.

Klay is on a heater. He's just making the bad shots

[Jerry Maine]

What should we do with Klay? Are we putting him in the wrong lineups? It is clear that Poole/Klay have a rough time together in terms of 2-man combos. If they aren't shooting lights out, then the bad defense they both play is a huge issue. How do we get more catch and shoot Klay, and less dribble dribble Klank? Catch and Shoot Klay is still VERY good at that, one of the best in the league in fact. But there seems to be a disconnect where if Klay can't get his 3P shot off, he settles for terrible 2p shots instead of passing out.

Some data that was interesting to me. When I read your post, my first reaction was that Klay has been playing much better as the season went on. However, while his TS% is higher in the last 30 days, it really isn't much higher. .555 for the season, .565 for the last 30 days. Notably, a few of the other Warriors have improved substantially. Wiggins and Kuminga I noticed along the way.

Klay has always been streaky, and the answer has always been, "You gotta let shooters shoot." But by now, we have a lot of data that he just isn't shooting as well as he used to. And if you aren't as good a shooter, shooting as much as he is just isn't appropriate. Lots of players find that if their shot isn't falling, they find other ways to contribute. And this might be the biggest gotcha. I anecdotally feel like his defense is improving as the season progresses, but still is definitely not where it was pre-injury. The other thing that was glaring to me (since I couldn't find a good source and had to calculate his TS% for the last 30 days by hand...) is that he's just not going to the line. In the last 30 days, he has 24 FTA in 11 games. Basically 2 shots a game. He's still a great free throw shooter, but it doesn't help much if he never goes to the line.

If he isn't making shots like he used to, he needs to do more than just continuing to take drifting 3 point shots and such. Or move the ball around more.

So since we discussed this 2 weeks ago, his TS has climbed even more. I'm inclined to say it's a real trend upwards; his shot selection had been better and he has hit more 2s lately. I don't know if he's reducing his overall 2pt attempts or what, but he has climbed up to 57% for the season now, close to the league average. Klay should be able to pull that up a bit more, and for how often this season he's been asked to be the #1 option (and his early struggles), I think it's good. I've never viewed Klay as a #1 option guy, more as a top end #2 offensive option, so if he pulls up to 58% for the season or close to it, I'd say that's pretty good given the circumstances. Certainly him heating up towards the playoffs is exactly what we need.

I’m curious what they are doing differently to make good shots available for Klay. We know he will take what is there, so setting him up is important.

Yeah I'm wondering about this too. My earlier quote above speaks to shot selection/availability being the biggest factor for him; if he can get/take the right shots, he's still a nuclear weapon. I know we'll have to play against better teams which might make it tougher for him, but he's also going to have Steph/Wiggs drawing attention. I'm guessing it's a combination of Klay's choices and something schematic Kerr is doing, but I'm not good enough at recognizing/remembering different plays to identify it. Maybe one of the Xs and Os experts here can chime in?

So I think it is at this point I have to eat a little crow with Klay; I thought he should be a top end 6th man that plays more when he is hot but he's showing that can wait at least another year or two. The most convincing part to me is that now he is playing back to backs: earlier in the year there were murmurs of knee soreness, and some nights he looked old/dead legged. I thought fewer minutes would help him, but he seems to have worked himself into shape and overcome whatever soreness issues he was having. He doesn't look dead legged anymore, and playing b2b shows he has stamina still.

Klay is on a heater. He's just making the bad shots

Been like that his whole career

[weekend_warrior]

Props to him, he has played really well in the last stretch of games. The occasional supernova game is kind of expected, but he has shown great poise on the offensive side recently. Good patience, not settling for bad shots, getting other players involved and even making really nice passes. I hope he can keep it up, big that must he his best stretch since the injuries.

[floppymoose]

In January Klay was on a heater. But he was otherwise still not playing very well, imo. Lately he's not just shooting well, but playing well. He's competing for boards. He's defending better. His attitude is better. His playmaking is better. His finishing inside is better. It's a huge turnaround. I think Poole may be edging in that direction too. A big mystery to me is what will Poole look like when Steph and Wiggins are back and Poole is coming off the bench.

One area for improvement would be the turnovers. But really I expect some of that when he is trying to do some of the playmaking load that Steph usually shoulders. If Klay could do everything he'd be Michael Jordan.

[DAWill1128]

Klay looks as good as ever offensively. The last handful of games he just looks like the best player on the court.