Golden State Warriors: 5 Early Season Takeaways
5. Klay Thompson Is Just Fine
Remember when people were worried about Klay Thompson‘s shooting slump like two weeks into the season? Remember when those ridiculous Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder trade rumors popped up? That was a fun time.
True enough, Thompson struggled in his first seven games of the 2016-17 campaign. He averaged just 17.0 points per game, making only 41.5 percent of his shots and a dismal 20.8 percent of his three-point attempts. After talking about not having to “sacrifice s**t,” it seemed as though Klay was going to have the hardest time adjusting to the new Kevin Durant dynamic.
How do you feel about those concerns, Klay?
As everyone should’ve predicted, it didn’t take long for Thompson to put those concerns to bed. Over his last seven games, he’s averaged 23.7 points per game on white-hot .526/.482/.944 shooting splits.
Both are small sample sizes, but it’s encouraging that after a rough patch to start the season, Thompson appears to be shrugging off his early shooting woes.
This shouldn’t be a surprise, really. Last season, Thompson got off to a similarly slow start, averaging a meager 15.5 points per game on .441/.364/.929 shooting splits through Golden State’s first 12 games. He went on to average a career-high 22.1 points per game on .470/.425/.873 shooting.
So far this season, Thompson is now averaging 20.4 points per game on .470/.349/.931 shooting splits, slowly but surely dragging his percentages back into the green. It’s no coincidence the Warriors are back up to sixth in three-point efficiency (36.9 percent) after ranking in the bottom-10 early on.
The Dubs still have a ways to go before they climb all the way back to the league-leading 41.6 percent they posted last year, but games like Thompson’s 30-point, five-three-pointer barrage against the Suns, his 28-point outing in 31 minutes against Boston and his 29-point, five-three-pointer onslaught against Milwaukee suggest concerns about this Splash Brother will be short-lived.