Getty Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors.
The Golden State Warriors face a difficult choice on extending Klay Thompson in the coming months, and some of the groundwork for that call may have been laid at the end of the team’s most recent loss.
Head coach Steve Kerr chose to bench Thompson down the stretch against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, December 12. Following the game, Thompson spoke to his coach’s decision.
Klay Thompson said it was “strange” to be benched to close the game but said he “deserved” to be benched: “I’ve been playing like crap.” He said he wasn’t given explanation but “I trust Steve. I trust Steve now and forever will.”
“Klay Thompson said it was ‘strange’ to be benched to close the game but said he ‘deserved’ to be benched: ‘I’ve been playing like crap,'” Anthony Slater of The Athletic reported via X. “He said he wasn’t given an explanation but, ‘I trust Steve. I trust Steve now and forever will.'”
Thompson also addressed his frustrations with the decision, despite expressing his understanding of it.
“Of course it frustrates me. You think I’m going to just chill? I’m friggin’ competitive,” Thompson continued. “At the end of the day, I’m one of the most competitive people to put this uniform on. I can say that with confidence, too. But whatever, I guess I didn’t bring it today. I deserved it.”
Klay Thompson Producing Career Lows During Contract Year
Getty Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors shows emotion on the bench during an NBA game in 2023.
Thompson is the only member of the Warriors’ Big 3 without a long-term deal tying him to the franchise.
Thompson finished Tuesday night’s game 2-of-10 from the field, including 1-of-8 from deep. He scored 7 points and added 5 rebounds in 27 minutes of action. The Warriors fells to the Suns by a score of 119-116 and dropped to 10-13 on the season.
For the year, Thompson is averaging 15.4 points — the lowest total since his rookie campaign. He is also shooting a career-low 39.7% from the field and a career-worst 34.3% from the 3-point line, per Basketball Reference.
The team paid its five-time All Star shooting guard the maximum ($190 million over five years) in July 2019, just weeks after he tore his ACL during the NBA Finals. Following another catastrophic injury — an Achilles tear during his ACL rehabilitation — Golden State may feel (and rightly so) that it has rendered adequate payment to Thompson for past services.
The Warriors already signed Draymond Green to a four-year, $100 million deal last summer just to watch him play in an unhinged fashion that has earned the volatile forward multiple ejections and at least one suspension through the first 30% of the season.
Perhaps it’s too early to call Green’s contract a mistake, but the Dubs can’t be too far from that conclusion, and throwing good money after bad to keep Thompson around at a price-point well above his actual value isn’t something a franchise with serious future salary-cap concerns can justify.
If Thompson’s play doesn’t markedly improve, and soon, he runs the risk of finishing his career elsewhere. Otherwise, he will have to face the relative embarrassment of playing on an extension in Golden State that reflects the dramatic decline in his game — a reality on the stat sheet that Thompson has nevertheless been unwilling to admit all year.
Steve Kerr Explains Choice to Bench Klay Thompson vs. Suns
Getty Head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors.
It wasn’t just Thompson that Kerr benched to finish the game in Phoenix. He also sat Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney for the stretch run — two other players from the 2021-22 championship team who have signed new deals with the Dubs since winning a title.
Kerr spoke to his decision to bench the three starters during his postgame press conference.
Steve Kerr on leaving Klay, Wiggins and Looney on the bench to close the game: “I just felt like tonight I had to play the guys who were playing the best. I’ve been really patient…Tonight did not feel like a night to have a lot of patience.”
“I just felt like tonight I had to play the guys who were playing the best. I’ve been really patient,” Kerr said, per Slater. “Tonight did not feel like a night to have a lot of patience.”
Golden State is far from finished with 59 games left to play in the regular season. However, the team currently occupies 11th place in the Western Conference, leaving it one spot outside the NBA Play-In Tournament.
No other team is threatening to drop the Warriors further in the standings, though the Dubs are 2.5 games behind the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 10 seed and need to author a true resurgence if they hope to secure one of the West’s six guaranteed playoff spots heading into the postseason next spring.