Thompson’s ‘D’ to be put to test
‘Splash Brother’ hardly a 1-dimensional player
Last week, while deleting old numbers from his iPhone’s contacts list, Darren Erman came across a series of text exchanges with Warriors guard Klay Thompson from July 2012.
In one conversation, Thompson tried feigning a stomachache to get excused from a summer workout. Erman, who was then a Golden State assistant coach, chuckled at the memory. When Thompson eventually showed up that day to Golden State’s practice facility, he aced an intensive, defense-oriented session.
“That definitely was a big summer for me,” Thompson said after practice Friday afternoon.
Arguably one of the greatest shooters in NBA
history, Thompson’s offensive prowess often overshadows the fact that he is an elite perimeter defender. His blend of stamina, size and unyielding will has made him a daunting on-ball matchup for everyone from LeBron James to Russell Westbrook.
Now, as Game 1 of the Warriors’ first-round playoff series against Portland looms Sunday, Thompson is readying for one of his most formidable defensive assignments. In addition to matching up with point guard Damian Lillard, he will slide over at times to guard C.J. McCollum. The backcourt duo, which ranks among the NBA’s best, accounts for 46.3 percent of the Trail Blazers’ production.
“When you hear people talk about the best two-way players in the game, Kawhi (Leonard) is always mentioned and LeBron is always mentioned,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “Klay deserves to be on that list, and people need to recognize that.”
Like many kids coming of age in the early 2000s, Thompson wanted to score like Kobe Bryant. AAU games were spent mimicking the former Lakers great’s fade-away three-pointer, scoop shot and finger-roll. Worried his middle son would become a one-dimensional player, Mychal Thompson, who won two championships with the “Showtime” Lakers, stressed the importance of defense to young Klay.
An old-school center, Mychal was better versed on defending the post than nagging highscoring guards. It wasn’t until Klay made the varsity team as a sophomore at Orange County’s Santa Margarita Catholic High School that he began to think seriously about shutting down the perimeter. Jerry DeBusk, the Eagles’ longtime head coach, schooled him on proper hand positioning, angles and spacing.
By the time Thompson was a rookie with the Warriors in 2011, he had the frame and lateral quickness to guard some of the NBA’s best scorers. Erman, the defensive architect under thenhead coach Mark Jackson, hatched a plan: After completing a summer gantlet of defensive drills, Thompson would be as reliable a defender as he was a shooter.
When his first NBA season ended with no playoff berth, Thompson returned home to the Los Angeles area for 17 days before flying back to Oakland. Time for relaxation was over. During the next 16 weeks, Thompson slogged through 45-minute defensive boot camps every Monday through Thursday.
Drills were geared toward everything from powering through screens to sliding his feet. In games of one-on-one with the team’s video coordinator, Thompson howled in disgust whenever he surrendered a point. It was all filmed so that, come Monday, Erman could review areas in need of improvement with Thompson. When training camp arrived, Erman told his colleagues that Thompson would be a Hall of Famer.
“I believed it,” Erman said. “I worked with Ray Allen, and he can shoot as well as Ray. When he started defending at a high level, Klay’s upside went through the roof.”
Defense became a point of pride for Thompson in his second season. In a game against Portland that season, after he saw Lillard heating up, Thompson tapped Erman on the shoulder during a timeout and asked in his monotone, “Do you mind if I guard Damian?”
It was only a couple of months later that Thompson was Jackson’s go-to stopper during Golden State’s first-round matchup with Denver. Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala, Ty Lawson — they all had torrid stretches quelled by Thompson as the Warriors won the series in six games.
Today, he is considered one of the league’s best on-ball defenders despite averaging less than a block or steal per game. Thompson, at 6-foot-7, 215 pounds, can stay in front of almost anyone. Unlike many players who are grabbing their shorts after a handful of trips blanketing James or Westbrook down the court, Thompson seldom breathes heavily.
“He can check anybody along the perimeter, and he gives guys a tough time,” said Draymond Green, the front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year. “Obviously, it’s easy to fall in love with his shot and everything that he does on the offensive end. But his defense is just as important to our team success as his shot is.”
After seeing the results of Thompson’s defensive-focused summer, Erman crafted similar regimens for Green, Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli. The only tweak? Because few players have Thompson’s endurance, Erman trimmed the 45minute workouts to 30.
These days, as an assistant coach with the Pelicans, Erman has a retort cued up whenever someone complains about focusing so much on defense: “Hey, Klay did it. Look at him now.”