Golden State Warriors: 5 Reasons Keeping Klay Thompson Makes Sense

3. The Splash Brothers:

I know, I know, I made a jab about splitting up the Splash Brothers up on the very first slide. And while I still think the concept of passing on Kevin Love for fear of ruining a fun nickname is juvenile, there’s also a certain unity on this team that needs to be taken into account. Love has the reputation of being a high-maintenance star, while Thompson simply competes with a straight face most of the time.

There’s no denying that the Warriors have one of the league’s best young backcourts, and they certainly have the best perimeter shooting duo in the NBA. Last season, Curry and Thompson finished No. 1 and No. 2 in made three-pointers, respectively. They also finished eighth (42.4 percent) and ninth (41.7 percent) in three-point percentage, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that they were taking a combined 14.5 attempts per game.

Dubs fans are all too familiar with splitting up fun nickname teams, because that’s exactly what happened when Don Nelson split up the “Run TMC” Warriors by trading away Mitch Richmond from Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway after only three seasons together. By not pulling the trigger on a Love trade, the 24-year-old Thompson will get to continue to grow alongside Stephen Curry and develop on both ends of the floor.

In the words of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Sandy Lyle in Along Came Polly, “LET IT RAIN!”