The NBA really does not have a lot of elite shooting guards anymore. Sure, people are quick to name the likes of James Harden, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade, but outside of them, there aren’t a lot of other candidates to compete for the title of league’s best shooting guard.
Well, maybe to the casual NBA fan there aren’t any other candidates.
Anyone who watches basketball more extensively, however, will say that Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson certainly belongs in the conversation.
I’m going to take that a step further and say that he is in fact the best option at the shooting guard position in the entire league.
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At 6-foot-7 and 205 pounds, Thompson has the size necessary to compete with the NBA’s other great wings, and his physical attributes help him to dominate on both ends of the floor.
Offensively, there may not be a more well-rounded guard than Thompson. This season, Thompson is averaging 21.0 points per game on 45.9 percent from the field, including a blistering 43.5 percent from behind the three-point line. On free throws, he’s been shooting 86.2 percent, showcasing his versatility as a scorer.
With his sweet shooting stroke and his ball-handling abilities that allow him to get to the rim or create separation for a pull-up jump shot, Thompson can score from any spot on the floor, making him the most dangerous shooting guard the league has to offer in terms of putting points on the board, especially considering the fact of how much more efficient he is than players like Harden and Bryant, who try to force a lot of low percentage shots on a consistent basis.
Defensively, Thompson has few equals at the shooting guard position. Outside of Tony Allen, there is no other 2 guard capable of locking down his man like Thompson. He has some of the best lateral quickness the league has to offer, even if he doesn’t have the fastest end-to-end speed out of all of his guard peers.
Thompson has the size and ability to guard multiple positions on the floor, from ones and twos all the way up to threes. There are very few situations in which Thompson can’t have a large impact on the defensive side of the ball, so it has been important to the Warriors to have a player that isn’t willing to mix it up with a lot of different opposing players on defense.
Off to a 28-5 start, the Warriors have been very lucky to have him and Stephen Curry operating out of the back court. Both are dynamic guards capable of creating their own offense or setting others up for success and holding their man to a respectable point total on offense.
With there not being any other really special shooting guards coming up the pipelines in today’s NBA, including those guards who will be entering the NBA draft next year, it is slowly becoming Thompson’s league.
Even though Harden may be averaging more points per game and is considered a better overall playmaker than Thompson is, he is still a very inefficient scorer that struggles to hit shots on a constant basis night in and night out.
Thompson is going to give his all on both ends of the floor for a full game, nothing less than expected from someone who certainly deserves an All-Star appearance.
Out of all of the rest of the guards in the NBA, no one can do as many on both ends of the floor as he can. Say hello to the future of the NBA.