This could be Thompson’s time to shine
OAKLAND >> When three of the greatest players in the world — three of the greatest players to ever play the sport of basketball — are set to square off in the NBA Finals, it’s easy to forget about the other guys.
While LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant will be at the forefront of deciding this year’s title, it’s another player whom you should keep your eye on in this series: Klay Thompson.
With the undeniable star power of Durant and Curry, Thompson is often the Warriors’ forgotten star.
But Thompson — the Warriors’ best two-way player this postseason — is the linchpin of a team that is looking for its third title in four years.
He proved it — yet again — in the Western Conference finals.
And you should expect him to continue making his case in the NBA Finals.
Thompson is a system player, and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way.
The national media loves to speculate on how Thompson would perform if he was on another team. Perhaps he’d get the respect he deserves if he had “his own” squad.
But the truth is that the pairing of Thompson and the Warriors is perfect.
Thompson, in many ways, makes this Warriors’ offensive system and the system, in many ways, has made Thompson. That’s a symbiosis that cannot be overlooked.
Thompson’s precise and, at times, persistent movement is critical to Golden State’s motion attack. That was made wildly apparent in the direst situation these Warriors have faced in the last two years.
In Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, the Warriors were struggling to find a balance between a Durant isolation-based
offense and a Curry-led motion attack, and it was Thompson who bridged the gap.
In retrospect, it seems so obvious that when neither Durant nor Curry can find a rhythm, the Warriors should feed the ball to Thompson, but the wing’s performance in that elimination game victory was a revelation at the time.
Thompson roamed through the physical and switching Houston defense like an icebreaker. His nine 3-pointers swung that game in the Warriors’ favor, but it was the manner in which he worked himself open that proved most important to
the Warriors’ series win. Thompson’s play reintroduced verve to the Golden State offense, pulling defensive attention away from Durant and giving Curry space to operate on the perimeter.
And when all three are clicking, the Warriors are next to impossible to beat.
The Warriors will try to get that going against the Cavs, who might try to take a page out of the Rockets’ defensive playbook and play a superphysical game in an effort to knock the Warriors off their game.
If that happens, expect Thompson to unlock the Warriors’ offense again.
The defensive matchups alone dictate that Thompson should have a big offensive series.
James will likely spend a good deal of time guarding Durant (who else on the Cavs could?) and the underrated George Hill will be on Curry in these NBA Finals. That leaves Kyle Korver or J.R. Smith to guard Thompson, and that’s not even close to a fair matchup.
Thompson should feast on open 3-pointers in these NBA Finals, and that, in turn, should open up opportunities for the Warriors’ star players to score in bunches as well.
When it rains, it pours.
The Warriors will also be counting on Thompson to turn in solid shifts on the defensive side of the court in the NBA Finals, just as they did against Houston, when was frequently marking James Harden.
It should go without saying, but the Warriors’ top defensive task against the Cavs is slowing down James. (You can’t really stop him.)
The Warriors’ strategy against James is to throw a variety of looks his way — to make him go against all different shapes and sizes.
The goal is to prevent James from reaching a flow state — to make him think, even if just for a moment, every time he touches the ball.
James is one of the smartest players to ever pick up a basketball, but it’s hard to develop a rhythm when you’re constantly having to run through scouting reports in your mind.
“LeBron is a very cerebral player,” Iguodala said Wednesday. “He does a very good job of always being a threat, whether he’s on the ball or off the ball. He does a really good job of making his teammates threats at any given time. So you’ve got to stay locked in.”
So Draymond Green is going to put in shifts against James. Durant is going to see plenty of time against LBJ, too. Jordan Bell, Nick Young and Shaun Livingston might end up toe-to-toe with the King, if only for a few possessions, and he’ll no doubt try to isolate onto Curry or Kevon Looney when they’re on the court.
But if any of these NBA Finals games are close in the fourth quarter and the Warriors need a defensive stop, it’ll likely be Thompson who matches up with James.
Iguodala’s defense against James was a major factor in him winning the NBA Finals MVP award in 2015.
Could it do the same for Thompson in 2018?
Durant is currently the favorite to win NBA Finals MVP — he’s going off at 5-to-7 odds. Curry, who has never won an NBA Finals MVP — the only blemish on his nearly perfect resume — has 9-to-5 odds.
But if you were to head to the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook today, you could pick Thompson to win the award at 20-to-1.
If this series goes the way I expect it to — with the Warriors winning the title in five games — and given the opportunity at hand and the responsibilities Thompson carries, those odds could look like a hilarious — and possibly lucrative — miscalculation in a few weeks.