Love pulls down a ton of boards so that's a decent contribution on the defensive end. Curry shouldn't be ranked in the top 5 as well due to his lack of defense. But he might be the best shooter of all time. Curry being top 5 this year is sort of like Harden being top 5 last year...a little too premature. I'm sure Curry will face all sorts of criticism next year regarding his D.
It goes both ways though. If Thompson wasn't on the same team with Curry, he would get more opportunity to score and his offensive stats would be much better than they are now. This is a contract year for him so I wouldn't be surprised if he is an all star and has a break out season.
Klay Thompson will never be elite offensively until he learns to get to the line. He would be a very weak number 1 option.
Even when Harden was playing as the 6th man and 3rd fiddle in OKC his TS% was at least 55.%. Thompson didn't even crack that number until just this past season. If you want to throw PER in there, Thompson hasn't had one higher than 14.9 whereas Harden's PER in his last year in OKC was higher than 20. I can stomach an argument that Curry is better than Harden but there's not a strong argument one can pull to say that Thompson is better than Harden just because he plays both ends of the floor.
Durant, Lebron, griffin, love, Westbrook, Davis, Harden, George, Paul Kobe and Wade when they were still elite All just a bunch of floppers? Or really good offensive players who didn't just live off a jumper?
lol so getting to the line is a bad thing because Harden flops Kobe flops McGrady flopped CP3 flopped Melo flops LeBron flops But yea, kudos to Klay Thompson for winning the Ethical Award.
I don't think Thompson just plays both ends of the floor. He is an elite defensive player. I would even be willing to say that I think Thompson is better than Curry...at least more valuable to the team.
Wow so Thompson just went from being able to play both ends of the floor to now being an ELITE defensive player? AND being better than Curry?
Kobe, Lebron, and Melo do not flop. They get fouled because defenders don't want them to score. Kobe even said he specifically does not flop and that is the secret to his longevity. Durant is a flopper though.
Because no one has bothered to put together a defensive mistake "low light" video for them and spread it around the internet. As for Klay Thompson he doesn't have to create his own shot as often, nor does he create shots for team mates. Curry's presence reduces the help defense on the perimeter significantly. The difference between scoring 18 ppg and 25 is pretty huge when coupled with 6.1/3.6 assist to turn over vs Thompsons 2.2/1.7 assist to turnover ratio. Thompson's definitely a better defender, but the offensive gap is rather huge. Here is a compilation of Thompsons offensive highlights from last year: [youtube]g3rb9OiApa8[/youtube] Here are Harden's: [youtube]EGNblw0jIbQ[/youtube] [youtube]z9H__UGe4II[/youtube] [youtube]FRYUSS6_-FU[/youtube]
Watch the playoff series vs the Clippers last year. Thompson shutdown CP3, Jamal Crawford, and whoever he was guarding. If it weren't for him, the Clippers woulda swept them.
Damn, Harden is underrated! Anyone in a golden state uniform is obviously overrated. including steph and klay.
Top 5 in no particular order are Lebron, Griffin, CP3, Westbrook, and Anthony Davis. Clippers got 2 top 5 players according to ESPN. Actually, Durant should be top 5 as well. So that playoff series last year between Thunder and Clippers showcased 4 of the top 5 players in the league. And 3 of the top 4 in total commercial airtime.
