It's the dog days of sports right now. It's that unfortunate time of year after NBA free agency has ended, before NFL preseason begins, when a sport with a 162-game regular season is the only major sport going on in America. So, to get through this rough patch, the sports media usually takes little quotes, events, and occurrences and blows them way out of proportion.
The latest subject of controversy is Klay Thompson. Last week, the Vertical published an article about what Thompson will have to sacrifice now that Kevin Durant will be added to the Warriors. Thompson, who is also Durant's current teammate on Team USA for the Summer Olympics, responded in an interesting way in this excerpt from the piece:
“'I feel kind of disrespected that people keep using the term sacrifice to describe me and describe us,' Thompson told The Vertical. 'We all want to see each other do well. But I’m not sacrificing [expletive], because my game isn’t changing. I’m still going to try to get buckets, hit shots, come off screens. I want to win and have a fun time every game we play.'
“'The NBA season can get mundane; 82 games are so long and there can be some boredom. Now, we can embrace being the hated team and getting everyone’s best, and adding some tension every night. It’ll be a fun experience going into arenas on the road, with opposing fans hating what we’ve built.'”
After this Thompson was vilified by some in the press for being "selfish", and only thinking about the number of shots he's going to get. Others interpreted it as a professional shooter just wanting to maintain his role and what makes him so important to a historically great team. But there are more quotes from Thompson in the article that one has to take into account before judging his intentions.
"Three years ago, Thompson had entered the then-coaching staff’s office in training camp, posed with the possibility of filling a sixth-man role. The Warriors considered avenues to increase their bench scoring, and Thompson had conceded to the direction of the coaching staff. It ultimately never was even experimented, and the accolades – two All-Star appearances, a 3-point competition title – and one championship followed for him.
'Even back then, it never mattered to me about starting, coming off the bench or scoring 12, 15 or 20 points,' Thompson told The Vertical. “This league can get caught up in scoring, and caught up in the stars. I’ve really just wanted to keep the Bay a winner – we all do.'"
"'I wouldn’t have flown to New York when we met KD if it was about sacrificing,' Thompson told The Vertical. 'We knew what we wanted to do, and we talked it out.
'We want to do something historic.'”
That doesn't sound like a selfish player to me. His comments in the back half of the piece directly contradict that notion. But I also think he didn't mean it as a person who just wants to maintain his role on the team but is afraid that role may be in jeopardy.
I think Thompson knows that, the way the Warriors offense runs, there isn't any ball-dominant player. You may say Stephen Curry, but he spends a ton of time coming off of off-ball screens, just like Thompson. I mean, just think of how many times the Golden State bench has gone off these last two years. That means the offensive scheme that coach Steve Kerr has implemented isn't predicated on one player, or even two running the show. The entire team generates the offense because they pass, cut, and shoot so well. Adding Durant to the mix doesn't mean Thompson necessarily loses touches. First of all, it means Thompson is going to be open a whole hell of a lot. But more importantly, Thompson knows that sometimes it's going to be his night to shine and sometimes it won't, just the same as it has been on this team the last two years.
So when Thompson said the "I'm not sacrificing (bleep)," line that was plastered all over ESPN for the following days, I don't think that was him consciously resisting a possible trend towards less shots for him. I think he was saying that he has such trust in the unselfish culture of ball movement and inclusion that Golden State has established, that he believes his game really won't have to change.
And honestly, why should it? Sure, Thompson has taken on more ball-handling duties the last two seasons, but that's still not a big part of his game. He may have to come off of less screens designed for him to shoot, but I think the amount of open spot-ups he'll get from the gravity of Durant and Curry on the court will make up some of the shot total. The loss of certain bench players from the team means he can make up his attempts from the ones they're leaving behind. And we know he's always going to compete defensively and guard the other team's best backcourt player.
So no, I don't think Klay Thompson is selfish, as evidenced by the quotes he had in the article about winning as a team. I think he's on a team that may be the greatest we've ever seen, and that he's aware that the Warriors will be able to include Durant without taking away from their incumbent stars because of their strong team culture and offensive philosophy. I just think Thompson was the latest victim of the 24-hour sports media's thirst for topics in the August heat.
No comments:
Post a Comment