Tag: klay thompson

Mavericks trade for Klay Thompson

The Dallas Mavericks last week acquired five-time All-Star Klay Thompson and a future second-round pick as part of a six-team sign-and-trade deal in exchange for guard/forward Josh Green and a future second-round pick. The transaction is part of the first six-team trade in NBA history.

“We’re thrilled to have Klay join us in Dallas,” stated Dallas Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison. “As one of the league’s greatest shooters who competes on both ends, we feel Klay is a perfect fit for our team. He adds a strong, experienced veteran voice that will help us continue to build on the success we’ve seen in recent years. Klay’s championship experience, clutch performances and calm demeanor under pressure exemplify what it takes to win in the NBA at the highest level. He will help us continue to grow towards our goal of winning another championship.”

Thompson (6-6, 220), a five-time All-Star (2015-19), helped the Warriors to four NBA championships (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022) in an eight-year span from 2015 to 2022. A former teammate of Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving on the U.S. national teams that won gold at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, Thompson holds career averages of 19.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 32.6 minutes in 793 games (742 starts) with Golden State while shooting 45.8% (5,794-12,782 FG) from the field, 41.3% (2,481-6,010 3FG) from 3-point range and 85.8% (1,462-1,704 FT) from the foul line.

The latest on Klay Thompson and the Warriors

Per the San Jose Mercury News:

Nothing about Klay Thompson’s approach changed, he assures. But the numbers certainly have.

It wasn’t long ago that Thompson reached the lowest point of his season, benched for the first time in his career during crunch time in a loss to Phoenix on Dec. 12. He threw towels, kicked chairs and yelled at anyone around him who could hear. For as ugly it looked, something sparked in his vexed mind.

Since the Warriors game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 14, Thompson is averaging 25.7 points per game shooting 50% from 3 on 11 attempts per game. Golden State is a total plus-17 when Thompson is on the floor over those six games in which the Warriors have gone 5-1. He had 28 points, including 11 straight over a pivotal two-minute stretch in the Warriors’ 126-106 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night.

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On Klay Thompson and the Warriors

Per the Bay Area News Group:

It seems likely Klay Thompson will be playing out the final year of his contract this season without an extension, but he’s not complaining.

Rather than bemoan the lack of a contract beyond this year, the 33-year-old Thompson sees it as an opportunity to “savor” what could technically be his final season with the Warriors.

“You never know what’s going to happen. I’m going to savor this as much as I can,” Thompson said hours before Friday night’s game in Sacramento. “Especially in this uniform. I was here before it was sweet, before it was four championships.”

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No contract extension agreement expected just yet between Warriors and Klay Thompson

Per NBC Sports Bay Area:

It doesn’t appear as if Klay Thompson and the Warriors will be working out a contract extension any time soon.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski joined “NBA Countdown” prior to Golden State’s preseason matchup with the Sacramento Kings and reported that the two sides have not made progress toward an extension and it’s becoming increasingly likely the Warriors star could enter free agency after the 2023-24 NBA season.

“I’m told that there has been absolutely no progress on a Klay Thompson extension in Golden State and that they are both still apart on years and money and there’s a very real possibility that Klay Thompson goes into free agency next summer without a deal and I think that’s where it gets complicated for Golden State,” Wojnarowski said.

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Klay Thompson says staying off social media has helped his jumpshot

Via the San Jose Mercury News/Bay Area News Group:

After strong performances over his last three games, Klay Thompson’s shooting percentage is steadily climbing closer to his career average heading into Friday’s game against the Utah Jazz.

A few weeks ago, Thompson decided to stop scrolling the comment sections on his social media platforms.

Coincidence? Not at all. Thompson says there is a “direct correlation” between his social media strike and his improved play.

“I have so much more time on my hands,” Thompson said after the Warriors’ shootaround on Friday. “On social media looking at the comments, I learned if you lurk you’re going to get hurt.”

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Golden State Warriors win 2022 NBA championship

NYTimes.com: “It turns out the dynasty had just been paused. Golden State has won the N.B.A. championship again, four seasons after its last one. It is the franchise’s seventh title and the fourth for its three superstars: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who have spent the past decade growing up together, winning together and, over the past three years, learning how fragile success can be. On Thursday, they defeated the Boston Celtics, 103-90, in Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals. They won the series, 4-2, and celebrated their clinching victory on the parquet floor of TD Garden, below 17 championship banners, in front of a throng of disappointed partisans. With 24 seconds left in the game, Curry found his father near the baseline, hugged him and shook as he sobbed in his arms. Then Curry turned back toward the game. He put his hands on his head and squatted down, then fell onto the court. “I think I blacked out,” Curry said later.”

ESPN.com: “Draymond Green played his best game of the series, scoring 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, grabbing 12 rebounds, recording eight assists with two steals and two blocks. He also hit two 3-pointers after missing his first 12 attempts of the series. He struggled on the other end, however. With Green as the primary defender, the Celtics shot 9-of-17 from the floor. Andrew Wiggins continued his strong series, finishing with 18 points, six rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocks. Jordan Poole added 15 points off the bench, while Klay Thompson scored 12. Gary Payton II had just six points, but finished with a plus-18 net rating.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “All through these NBA Finals, Steph Curry has been more openly emotional than usual, getting into it with Boston fans and doing audaciously early celebrations. Those emotions completely took over on Thursday night as his Warriors put away the Celtics late in a 103-90 win that clinched their fourth NBA title since 2015 and their first since 2018. After coach Steve Kerr pulled the Golden State starters with the win — and the title — assured, Curry began crying on the baseline, embracing his father Dell, who had a victory cigar at the ready. When time expired, the tears really started to flow, with Curry weeping through his ABC interview with Lisa Salters.”

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Warriors eliminate Mavericks in five games to reach 2022 NBA Finals

ESPN.com: The Golden State Warriors are heading back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019 and for the sixth time in the last eight years. The Warriors punched their ticket with their 120-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 on the Western Conference Semifinals on Thursday night. Klay Thompson played his best game of the series, finishing with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-25 shooting, including eight 3-pointers.

ESPN.com: Stephen Curry celebrated the Golden State Warriors’ return to the NBA Finals by adding a new trophy to his collection as he was named the first Western Conference finals Most Valuable Player on Thursday. After the Warriors eliminated the Dallas Mavericks with their 120-110 win in Game 5, Curry was handed the brand-new Magic Johnson Western Conference finals MVP trophy and was immediately hugged and lifted in the air by his teammates. Nine members of the media voted on the series MVP at the end of the game.

San Jose Mercury News: “Steph Curry added to a dusty trophy case Thursday night as the Western Conference Finals’ MVP. What comes with that is the NBA’s inaugural Magic Johnson Trophy, named after the Los Angeles Lakers’ legend. “The new trophy is pretty cool,” Curry said, “especially with who it’s named after and the standard that Magic set in terms of being a champion and playing the point guard position — and other positions — and the excellence he had through his career.” What may be surprising is that Curry’s trophy case is not as filled as you might suspect for a Warriors legend who’s closing in on his fourth NBA championship. In his three NBA Finals triumphs, MVP honors did not go to Curry, but rather Andre Iguodala in 2015 and Kevin Durant in 2017 and ’18. Of course, that Larry O’Brien Trophy is Curry and the Warriors’ ultimate goal once the NBA Finals get underway for the first time in San Francisco, at the Chase Center next Thursday night.”

On the new Warriors ‘death lineup’

Here’s the San Francisco Chronicle on the fun and games the Warriors are unleashing in the form of a new ‘death lineup’ edition:

The Golden State Warriors thrashed the visiting Denver Nuggets for the second straight game on Monday, and the debate erupted right on time. Are the Warriors on their way back? Is the Chase Center as rowdy as the Oracle? Will fans of Joel Embiid ever say something positive about Nikola Jokic? These are all direct questions, and perhaps someone has the time to respond. But there was another issue floating around, one that sparked a collective frenzy: What in the world are we meant to call Golden State’s new death lineup?

For the seven or eight of you not in the know, the (original) death lineup was not an influential 1980s anarcho-crust band but a name lovingly bestowed way back in the 2014-15 season on the genre-bending five-man unit of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green. Skilled playmakers, elite shooting, aggressive long-limbed defenders — this was essentially the platonic ideal of winning small-ball. Steve Kerr (nice guy, good-looking guy!) wisely leaned into this dangerous lineup during the playoffs, and it propelled the Golden State Warriors to their first championship in 40 years. The following season, the same lineup hammered the league nightly and won the most regular season games in NBA history and nothing bad happened after that. And of course, the next year the rich got richer and switched out solid New Republic subscriber Harrison Barnes for human inferno Kevin Durant. The death lineup became the megadeath lineup. And then Durant left. Iguodala was traded. Klay and Steph were injured. Draymond’s attention wandered. The death lineup, for all intents and purposes, was dead.

Hopefully, the league has recovered from its collective death lineup fatigue after a two-year hiatus, because the death lineup is back, thanks in large part to Jordan Poole’s progress and a timely extended hot streak. This is Warriors Dynasty basketball at its finest. That all-too-familiar barrage. It is quite lovely to watch in real time. A deficit turned into a rout in an alchemical blur, life-affirming orderly chaos. It is never boring to watch the life drain from the opposition’s eyes as they do a more-than-acceptable job up until the dam bursts.

The latest on Warriors SG Klay Thompson is good

There’s good news on Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson, via the ESPN.com:

Golden State Warriors swingman Klay Thompson is starting to look more like his old basketball self amid his rehabilitation from a torn right Achilles injury.

Participating in his first official team practice since suffering the injury in an offseason workout Nov. 18, 2020, Thompson knocked down shots from all over the court, much to the delight of his teammates and coaches.

“Klay looked great,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after his team’s first practice Tuesday. “Shooting the lights out. His team won the daily shooting competition. And he was smiling, laughing, joking around, it was really fun to see the old Klay back.”

On paper, the Warriors don’t look like a championship contender these days, but they certainly belong back in the playoffs if Stephen Curry and Draymond Green get a healthy and effective Klay back alongside them once again.

After surgery, Klay Thompson to miss another full NBA season

Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson on Wednesday, November 25 underwent surgery to fix a torn right Achilles.

The surgery will likely keep Thompson sidelined for the entire 2020-21 NBA season. Which means he’ll have been out of the NBA for an entire two seasons before he returns to action.

The 30-year-old sharpshooter suffered the injury while working out in the Los Angeles area on November 18.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “though the additions of Kelly Oubre Jr., Brad Wanamaker and Kent Bazemore should bolster Golden State’s wing depth, the Warriors know there is no way to truly replace Thompson. His shooting range, defense and selflessness were a driving force behind the team’s recent dynasty.”

A three-time NBA Champion and five-time NBA All-Star, Thompson missed the entire 2019-20 NBA season after suffering a torn left ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals (June 13, 2019). He has appeared in 615 regular season games during his nine-year NBA career, averaging 19.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 33.1 minutes per game.