Getty Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors.
With the playoffs right around the corner, the Golden State Warriors seem to be trending in the right direction. Before Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, they had would their previous five games.
Despite the team’s improved play, Klay Thompson’s father, Mychal Thompson feels as if the Dubs are still missing a key piece to the championship puzzle.
Thompson, a two-time NBA champion with the Lakers in 1987 and 88, highlighted Golden State’s lack of size, during a recent appearance on KNBR’s “Murph & Mac” show.
“I’ve been talking about this all year long, but nobody wants to listen to me up there in the Bay,” he said. “You’ve got to get bigger. Last night, it was old-school basketball — the Lakers had this dominant guy [Anthony Davis] in the middle, and they used him. Kevon Looney being the biggest guy for the Warriors could be a problem in the playoffs. Kevon plays his heart out, but sometimes the size can just wear you out in the paint, and if you’re going to beat the Warriors, you can’t outshoot them, so you’ve just got to go inside and try to beat them up in the paint.”
Davis finished Sunday’s matchup with a game-high 39 points, to go along with 8 rebounds and 2 assists.
Mychal Thompson Says Warriors Need to Look Ahead, Not Behind
Thompson continued to cast doubt on his son’s squad. He cited dominant paint forces such as Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid as the type of player the Warriors should look to add. While adding a superstar talent at the center spot wouldn’t be very realistic to ask of a team that is already $168 million into the luxury tax, Thompson believes that the league is relying on size again this season.
“You can’t drive your car looking in the rearview mirror,” he said. “You’ve got to look in the windshield. This year, it looks like size is important. Yeah, they got away with it last year, but this year, it’s going to be tough. The Warriors scrap and play their hearts out, but since they’re so small, Steve Kerr’s got to emphasize everybody’s got to have a foot in the paint when the shot goes up. … Because as Pat Riley once said, ‘No rebounds, no rings.’ That holds true to this day.”
Stephen Curry & Klay Thompson Have Confidence in Warriors
Unlike his father, the younger Thompson believes in this season’s Warriors team.
He spoke with reporters after Golden State’s loss in L.A., relaying his strong faith in this year’s group of players.
“Our confidence is very high. I think I’ve stated this before, I’m never going to doubt this group or this franchise,” he told reporters via NBC Sports Bay Area. “We still have a lot of basketball left and we can put ourselves in a great position to finish the year the way we want to.”
Klay remains confident in both the Warriors and his own game 💪
Thompson’s “Splash Brother,” Stephen Curry, shared a similar sentiment with the media.
“It’s a different challenge because I was out for four weeks before, four weeks this last time. Andre (Iguodala) has been chomping at the bit to get out there and play,” Curry said via NBC Sports Bay Area. “The way we’ve been shorthanded for a long time, these guys have been stepping up and playing at an extremely high level to give us even a little bit of life to be where we are in the standings and all of that. You know, there’s just a lot that we’re trying to deal with and still stay optimistic about where we’re headed. Until we get beat we feel like we’re a tough matchup for anybody. That’s the confidence that we have to have down the stretch and heading into the postseason.”
Steph believes the Dubs are still “a tough matchup for anybody” despite the their ups and downs this year