Here Comes Klay Thompson

The Warriors star has finally found his rhythm heading into the NBA playoffs.

Like any writer, I toy with a number of potential ideas and story subjects at any given time. A team that unexpectedly makes a splash or overachieves withouts its star player. A club that wildly underachieves or looks like it may be on its last legs. A player who looks rejuvenated and could take on added importance in the postseason.

Among the things I considered writing up recently, but ultimately held off on, was Klay Thompson, who in January returned to the Warriors’ lineup 941 days—or just two and a half years—removed from his last live-game action. I planned to write on his struggles to find a rhythm within Golden State’s attack and the ways in which they were holding up the offense at times.

The reason I held off: It felt premature. Obvious, even. We know it generally takes players—even elite ones—weeks or months to get their timing back after considerable time off due to injury. So I figured I’d tackle the topic once the Warriors reached the playoffs if what we saw from Thompson, particularly through a difficult month of March, continued on into the postseason.

Thank goodness I waited. Thompson finally appears to have found that rhythm, and has logged 41, 33 and 36 points over his last three contests, a span in which he’s banged in 21 of his 41 triples. Over his final eight games of the season, Thompson averaged 28 points while shooting 46.5% overall and 44.4% from deep on more than 12 three-point tries per game.

Thompson’s progression could be an enormous shot in the arm for the Warriors, who still may not have Stephen Curry back for the start of their first-round series against reigning MVP Nikola Jokić and the sixth-seeded Denver Nuggets. And even if they do have Curry, there’s still the fact that he, Thompson and Draymond Green have shared the court for all of 11 minutes over three games this season. Jelling would almost seem to be a necessity in order for the team to reach the heights it did during its dynastic run during the previous decade.

The likelihood of that happening seems far greater with Thompson looking more comfortable. Early on, much of the challenge with the shooting guard was that the ball was sticking in his hands a bit too long—something that was rarely a problem before Thompson’s injury, but, until recently, was noticeable to anyone who regularly watches the Warriors.

Before these last three games, Thompson was holding the basketball for an average of 2.38 seconds per touch and dribbling the ball 1.58 times per touch, according to NBA Advanced Stats. (He was getting just 28.9 touches per game.) The seconds and dribbles per touch were each Thompson’s highest since the 2014–15 season, when coach Steve Kerr took over and quickly helped transform the Warriors from an NBA club that passed the ball the least into one of the most pass-happy teams in the league.

Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports

In his last three contests, Thompson got rid of the ball within 1.97 seconds on average, and after just 1.23 dribbles per touch (on a whopping 54 touches per contest). While the difference may seem minuscule, those are reductions of 17% and 22%, respectively, in terms of time and dribbles. It gives Golden State a better tempo and the opposing defense less opportunity to load up on Thompson or whoever else might get the ball next. And aside from it being truer to who the Warriors are, it also unleashes the most lethal version of Thompson, who’d long been one of the NBA’s most dangerous shooters in any scenario, but especially when he uses a quick trigger. A few years back, I wrote about how Klay was lapping the field in terms of how many triples he connected on when launching an attempt within eight-tenths of a second of receiving a pass.

Some of the struggles this season clearly stemmed from Thompson trying too hard to make things happen off the dribble and through isolations. And that’s something that will happen occasionally when you’re receiving so many fewer touches, but are hungry to shine in those moments where the ball comes your way. Other times, he may have simply been adjusting to how different the Warriors look now compared to 2019. “Last time he was with us, Kevin Durant was on the team, and Draymond was healthy and active,” coach Steve Kerr said back in February. Without them, Kerr explained, there’d naturally be more responsibility placed on Thompson to handle the ball more than he had in the past—a tall task as someone like Thompson tries to regain timing.

Keeping things short and sweet, with quicker catch-and-shoot decision-making—aided by the ascension of playmaker Jordan Poole—has made an enormous difference for Thompson. “I’m still just scratching the surface,” Thompson said this weekend.

And if that’s the case, it makes the Warriors only more scary once they’re whole again.

Meat and potatoes: Good reads here and elsewhere

• First things first: We can’t have you going into the play-in games tonight and Wednesday without knowing what to look for and expect. Rohan Nadkarni wrote up a primer, asking one key question about each of the first four postseason matchups.

• Chris Mannix wrote a story about Kevin Love finally having fun again in Cleveland, which finds itself with a chance to clinch the East’s seventh seed with a victory tonight.

• Nadkarni and Mannix each wrote about a club that didn’t make the play-in; one that perhaps spared itself the embarrassment of having to participate in it. They both tackled the Lakers, with Rohan writing on the offseason questions they now face, and Chris focusing on the train wreck that this year was for the organization. (On that same wavelength, The Athletic’s Bill Oram penned a story on how Frank Vogel deserved better from the Lakers than for them to preemptively leak news of Vogel’s fate to Woj, who tweeted that the club planned to fire the coach a minute or two after the final buzzer sounded on L.A.’s season-ending victory.)

• Michael Pina wrote a pair of stories: one spotlighting backend MVP candidate Jayson Tatum’s strides as a passer and one formalizing his NBA awards picks. And Howard Beck wrote an interesting column about how too many people are losing the script as it relates to determining the league’s MVP.

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