THOMPSON RARING TO GO
Guard credits Summer Olympics with keeping him in tip-top shape
OAKLAND — For 75 seconds, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant traded practice shot for shot. Thompson with a one-dribble pull-up. Good. Durant with a fallaway 17-footer. Yep. Thompson with a stutterstep turnaround. All net.
They moved to the 3-point line. Bang. Bang. Bang. Six straight for each, until Durant finally relented, clanging the back rim to snap a streak of 18 straight makes.
Thompson hit three more before finally missing. No one in the gym even seemed to notice. The vibe was all too ordinary. Thompson arrived at camp scorching hot last week. Three days into practice, he still hadn’t cooled. So coach Steve Kerr went up to him for a chat.
“Man, you look like you’re in good shape, much better than last year,” Kerr said.
Thompson’s response: “Shoutout to the Olympics.”
For NBA franchises, international competition has an obvious drawback. You worry about player health and fatigue. With three Olympians this summer, Golden State’s concern tripled.
And maybe that added workload eventually catches up. But for now, it’s only produced benefits for the Warriors. Durant called it “therapy” after the free agency backlash. Draymond
Green attached some positive spin to his otherwise negative summer. All three got to know each other better, on and off the floor. And, apparently, Thompson erased a month of lounging in Los Angeles with basketball work in Rio.
“I didn’t get too out of shape,” he said.
Last season, Thompson scored nine points in the opener. He shot 36 percent from 3-point range the first 11 games. He sat out a mid-November game against Brooklyn with back stiffness. Even as the Warriors rattled off 24 straight wins to start the year, Thompson played his most uneven stretch before eventually finding his stride.
“Conditioning (was an issue),” Kerr said. “Then he hurt his back early in the season. Just wasn’t quite ready for the grind. I can see he’s in better shape this year. He’ll be good right away.”
The Durant addition, of course, reconfigures things. Thompson took 17 shots per game last season and around eight 3s. Steph Curry took 20 and 11. In the stat book, both will likely see minimized numbers, as will Durant, who averaged 19 shot attempts and nearly seven 3s with the Thunder.
Thompson made waves this summer after telling The Vertical: “I’m not sacrificing (bleep).” At media day, he clarified the comment.
“When you acquire the talent we did this offseason, I don’t think that’s a sacrifice at all,” Thompson said. “I think that we are in an amazing position to do things that haven’t been done here.”
In the first preseason game, Durant was cold but relatively aggressive. He took nine shots, making two, in his 19 minutes, including a missed fadeaway on a force-fed post-up on the game’s first possession. Meanwhile, Curry (2-of-6 in his 17 minutes) seemed a bit passive, taking the initial back seat during this feeling out process.
Thompson didn’t. In his 19 minutes, he jacked up 13 shots, including 11 3s, making four. There was no hesitancy. The Warriors don’t want any. And they don’t expect any.
“Did you watch the game the other night?” Kerr laughed. “Klay’s fine. When Klay’s open, we want him to shoot. Klay will play the same role he’s always played.”
But there’s hope among the staff that Thompson’s role includes some minor additions. Assistant coach Ron Adams has been harping on him about rebounding more. Forty NBA players averaged 33 minutes or more last season. Among them, Thompson averaged the ninth-fewest rebounds, 3.8.
“Trying to average five rebounds this year,” Thompson said. “I look at Steph (5.4 per game last season); he’s one of the best rebounding guards there is, just so crafty.”
Thompson also mentioned a desire to get to the free throw line more. Every one of the league’s top 18 scorers last season averaged at least five free throw attempts per game. Except for Thompson. He averaged 2.8.
A bump in that category would help. But it’s not imperative. Thompson isn’t a physical downhill driver. He’s a sniper with a lethally quick trigger. When he’s open, he’ll shoot. And with Durant, he may find himself open even more.
Against the Raptors on Saturday, Kerr said he liked all of Thompson’s 11 first half 3s after looking at tape. “He didn’t take one bad one,” Kerr said.
Thompson’s first came 66 seconds into the game. With Durant trailing on the fastbreak and Curry in the corner, he caught it on the wing.
A frantic DeMar DeRozan stood on an island in front of Thompson. The defensive options were bleak. He closed out on Thompson but jumped left after a fake pass to an open Curry in the corner. A pitch back to Durant would’ve given KD an open look, but Thompson found himself unguarded. He rose and hit the three.
It was an early peek at the type of binds opponents may find themselves in this season. Could 50-point quarters be possible for this Warriors team? How about 80-point halves? Or 140point games?
“Maybe a couple 150 games,” Thompson laughed.