Klay Thompson Got Super Defensive About Potentially Being Benched Given How Brutal He's Been To Start The Season

Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.

Outside of Steph Curry having a better season than his unanimous MVP year, things haven't exactly been great for the Warriors. Even with the Chris Paul fit not really being all that terrible, he's shooting just 39/32% in his 28 minutes a night. Andrew Wiggins is in the same boat, getting off to a 41/25% start from the floor.  Add in all the drama around Draymond and his suspension, and it's not exactly surprising to see they're 8-9 (3-6 at home) and in the 10th spot in the West.

There's also of course the Klay Thompson dilemma. After not reaching an extension this summer, Klay entered the season on an expiring $43M deal, and will enter the summer as an UFA in his age 34 season. Usually, when a guy is in this spot, he has one of the best seasons of his career given that it's a contract season. Unfortunately for Klay, he's off to arguably one of the worst starts he's ever had. 

His 15.0 points per game are the lowest since his rookie season in 2011-12. His 40.2% from the floor is the worst of his career, as is his 36.7% from behind the arc. Given he's a career 45/41% player, we've literally never seen Klay struggle like this before. For that to come in a contract year is tough, and then when you add his struggles in with the other players on this roster who can't buy a bucket, that's certainly not great.

It's reached the point where now Klay is having to deal with "benching" takes, which you can clearly see is not sitting well with him

Here's the thing. In some ways, Klay is right. He's certainly earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his struggles. Guys start seasons slow all the time, and this certainly isn't the first time Klay has had to deal with these type of slumps/issues, and last time I checked the Warriors did just win the NBA title in 2022 (sigh), with Klay having his fair share of moments during that run. 

At the same time, this is the worst he's ever looked, and given his age it's not totally out of question to think if Father Time has come knocking. Not only that, based on what you want to believe, this all may be tied back to his contract situation

My guess is it's probably a combination of both. He's playing shitty, you can tell by that clip that he's starting to get defensive about it, and he's only human. It's not crazy to think his pending contract is going to weigh on him given his age. At the same time, Klay has made over $200M in his career, he's won 4 rings, and he's battled back through two brutal injuries, but it's the contract negotiations that are fucking him up mentally? Part of me feels like that's a bit of a stretch/maybe an intentional leak.

Maybe the most important thing a pure shooter can have is confidence. Once that's gone, everything starts to crumble. When you watch Klay play, it's pretty obvious he's pressing. Poor shot selection, trying to force the issue, it's really only made things worse. Is that because Klay is striving for that next big payday or because he's just trying to snap out of his early season funk? 

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The Warriors ownership group has made it pretty clear they will pay whatever they have to in order to keep this core together as long as they're competing for titles. It's why they just gave Draymond his 4/100M extension. The question now becomes, if the Warriors have no plans of offering Klay an extension, or if he has no interest in accepting a lower figure than he may think he's worth, do the Warriors trade him? In the NBA, you can't let assets walk out the door for nothing, especially when you're a tax team like the Warriors and you don't have a ton of avenues to replace that talent. It's not like it opens up a shit ton of cap space for GS if Klay walks, so really their options are

1.) Pay him/convince him to take a non-max extension

2.) Trade him

If the Warriors continue to float around .500 and in the 7-10 seed, is it that big of a stretch to think he might get moved? The Warriors could call up the Bulls right now and flip Klay/picks for someone like LaVine given the money lines up. I can't imagine the Bulls would give a shit about the expiring deal since they'd be entering the rebuild, and the Warriors get a younger offensive minded wing who is signed for another 2+1 after this season. 

Again, it's still relatively early in the NBA season. It's not totally out of the question that Klay snaps out of his funk, gets back to being the version of himself most Warriors fans remember and he plays his way into an extension. But if the struggles continue and there's no deal by the trade deadline, you could make the case that the Warriors should be proactive and make sure they protect their asset.

I'll be honest, whenever we talked about the Warriors Dynasty Core one day finally coming to an end, I never really thought Klay would be the one to go. Especially since he got back to being a 20ppg player on 43/40% splits with 4.3 3PM a game in the 101 games following his injuries. 

But so far that player has been nowhere to be found.