Thompson gets defensive street cred
Warriors guard Klay Thompson has been considered one of the NBA’s top two-way players for years, and now he finally has the accolade to prove it.
Thompson was named to the league’s All-Defensive second team Wednesday, marking his first career All-Defensive team selection. Warriors forward Draymond Green made the All-Defensive second team for the second straight year after three consecutive years on the first team.
Wednesday’s recognition spotlights an oft-overlooked part of Thompson’s game. In addition to being one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, he is one of the league’s elite on-ball defenders. Thompson’s endurance and size make him a daunting matchup for everyone from LeBron James to James Harden to Damian Lillard to Russell Westbrook.
Thompson, who routinely guards the opponent’s top scorer, held Harden to 25 percent shooting in the regular season, Lillard to 33.3 percent and Washington’s Bradley Beal to 40 percent. His defense on Harden, Lillard and the Clippers’ Lou Williams is a big reason the Warriors have reached their fifth NBA Finals in a row.
In recent months, as Thompson delivered more and more defensive gems against world-class scorers, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr publicly lobbied multiple times for Thompson to make the All-Defensive team.
Many inside Golden State’s organization were confused about why he hadn’t already received the recognition. Since slogging through a defense-oriented summer-workout regimen in 2012, Thompson has emerged as a premier perimeter defender.
Perhaps it took so long for Thompson to make an All-Defensive team because, in an era that emphasizes analytics, he doesn’t fare especially well in the advanced stats. His regular-season defensive rating of 107.8 ranked 286th in the NBA, behind 12 of his teammates.
Thompson’s defensive real plus-minus — a stat measuring a player’s average impact on his team’s defense by points allowed per 100 offensive possessions — was minus-0.29, which ranked 27th among shooting guards. Asked in March why Thompson had yet to make an All-Defensive team, Warriors forward Kevin Durant said that “the people who vote on that don’t really know the game.”
Although Thompson is surely pleased to make the All-Defensive second team, Green doesn’t figure to be so happy. In October, he told reporters that he was using his 2018 All-Defensive second-team selection as motivation, saying, “I don’t think any voter can tell me (there are) five defensive players better than me.”
Nagging injuries and uneven intensity again made it tough for Green to match his 2017 Defensive Player of the Year performance. However, he still led the Warriors in steals (1.4) and tied for second in blocks (1.1). Green tied Nate Thurmond (1969, 1971-74) on Wednesday for the franchise’s most career All-Defensive team selections with five.