Klay Thompson: I'm the best shooting guard in the NBA

Warriors would stand around and watch Harden ISO and watch the entire team get back doored on every play.

Teams are already backdooring Curry, with Harden, the back door would be more open than a KY Gel product testing day.

People just don't understand the concept of team guy like Thompson and how he covers up guys that are a liability like Curry.

 

Why? What evidence is there of this? You're just spouting hypotheticals. Harden was great in OKC. He's been great in Houston. He hasn't had the team that Golden State has had, therefore he has not had the same amount of "ensemble" success as Golden State either. Just because he hasn't been surrounded by other high quality players like Klay Thompson has doesn't mean he's "not a good piece in an ensemble", especially when there is evidence from his OKC days that he very obviously can be.

 

Ray Allen is the better comparison. Rice never won anything when he was lighting it up

 

Shows you how good the Spurs are.

They were going to draft the new best player from that draft, Klay and Leonard.

 

You said it right there when you said, "HIGH."

He got busted for smoking weed right 3 months before the draft and then his dad ripped him on his radio show calling him an immature idiot.

Kings would still have taken JIMMER though even without the drug arrest. JIMMMMMMER, the next Steph Curry said all the NBA draft expert

On how much this could hurt Klay's NBA stock:

MT: Definitely some teams will look at Klay going, 'Hmmm if this guy's going to be this irresponsible, I don't know if I'd want this type of guy on my team and want to invest all this kind of money him.' I told him, 'Klay, do you think NBA teams who are thinking of you as this guy with high character and good morals, don't you think this is going to hurt your reputation?' He said, 'Yeah, i know.'

 

The thing about the Thompson-Harden swap scenario:

If the Rockets had Thompson, they'd have very different players around him. Maybe someone like Kyle Lowry or Goran Dragic, someone who may be hesitant about playing next to a ball-dominant SG, would agree to sign with or be traded to Houston. Maybe Dwight would be a bit happier with his touches and the spacing become more effective as a result?

 

You still dont get it. Ok, just compare Harden and Klay's offense and defense. Who do you think make their team better?

 

Twice is probably an understatement.

 

Offense:
Klay is a better (elite) shooter
Harden is a better (elite) scorer, (elite) penetrator, (elite) finisher at the rim, ball handler, assist man, and has better (elite) court vision.

Defense:
Klay is a better team and positional defender and is slightly better at getting blocks
Harden is better at steals and (elite for position) rebounding

Harden's combined +/- is 6.7
Klay is at 0.7

It is not just about offense and defense being 1:1. Or about Klay being better because he is asked to guard Lebron. Harden is asked to bring the ball up the court, control the offense, be the first scoring option, and set up a bunch of lesser poor shooting offensive players. GSW would never ask Klay to do that.

Klay is the second or third best player on his team. Imagine how amazing the Rockets would be with Harden as the second or third best. Would have to be something like Lebron at the 4 and Durant at the 3 (or reassembling that OKC Finals team but with all of them in their primes).

Any team would be lucky to have either but your argument is limited.

 

How so? Harden's never had a supporting cast, fellow star players, or coach that even approaches what Thompson has.

 

Doesn't matter, the so-called supporting cast doesn't always assist at the right times. Even fouled hard, Thompson was able to hit some bombers.

 

There is no debate. Klay is an overrated defender, period. What does a stat like Real Plus Minus has anything to do with steals? nothing. I'm actually shocked that Lowe doesn't know this. Take a look at Klay's DRPM, DBPM, or DRtg and the only rational conclusion you can draw from them is that he gives up quite a lot of points while being on the floor. He's a decent on-ball defender against smaller guards, but outside of that there is nothing special about Klay's defense. He certainly doesn't lock anybody down like Kawhi or PG13, and plays mediocre defense from the team perspective; just compare the sheer impact Draymond has on GSW's defense as a whole with that of Klay, and you'll realize that they are on entirely different level defensively. Klay gets a lot of unearned props just for being relatively better and covering up Curry's deficiency on that end, it's kind of an optical illusion really. If Klay was playing with CP3 instead of Curry, he would receive zero recognition for his defense.

Klay is not an average passer, he's passing is flat out BAD. More often that not the ball gets stuck when it goes to Klay's hands, his assist/turnover ratio is almost 1:1, and has zero ripple effect emanating from his passing skills. That's why the Warrior's offense revolves around Draymond and Curry, Klay is more of a 3rd wheel in terms of the overall impact. This is a crucial point to make because there is so much to offense than just scoring buckets. Magic or Nash didn't score a ton, but they were still regarded as elite offensive players thanks to what they could create off of their assists and court vision.

Klay is not a true two-way player in this sense, since his game is incomplete on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Klay can't create his own shot due to his sloppy ball-handling and inability to finish around the rim when contested. Add to that his lackluster passing skills, Klay becomes half the offensive player Harden is. On the defensive end, Klay is generally overrated and not very effective except for guarding smaller players utilizing his length. Doesn't lock anybody down like most real elite defenders, doesn't get rebounds, steals or blocks, and gives up quite a lot of points while on the court, probably because his overall defensive impact is nowhere near as far-reaching as that of Draymond or Kawhai, who can literally disrupt the opposing teams's entire offense .

 

Harden was the best shooting guard in 14-15 season. Klay Thompson was the best SG in 15-16 season.

 

if one of the outcomes of having klay is that we enable dwight's selfish "give me ineffective post touches so i'll play defense" attitude, then that's already strike one against klay. but i don't want to evaluate either within the context of having to deal with dwight.

obviously a team with harden would be built differently than a team with klay, but i just think it's easier to start with harden. with klay, i almost have to have a true #1 offensive option to add to him unless i plan to only play bottom 10 defenses like houston and portland in the playoffs. with harden, his off-the-ball shooting wouldn't prohibit anyone from getting a 1A/1B option to go with him and while i guess one can argue harden wouldn't want to share, i think it's more likely he wants to share than he wants to be the leading minutes guy in the nba carrying all of the offensive responsibility for the rest of his career.

basically it seems like the only way klay might somehow beat harden would be if i found a #1 option to put next to him, which is obviously very hard to do. and even then i think the offensive system would have to be a certain way for it to still not be better to have harden. i mean i guess klay would have to considered a better fit for gs, but i don't think harden would destroy them or anything, and obviously gs is a very specific situation.

of course there's defense, but as several others have pointed out, some numbers don't paint klay as a great defender. espn's drpm has harden at 48th among SG's and klay at 47th among SG's. and that's with harden carrying an offense and klay not.

 

Pretty much

Let's hope harden gets serious about basketball

 

That's what I'm saying, Thompson probably has more than twice the supporting cast Harden does lol.

 

Swap both players & Warriors get better while the Rockets don't make the playoffs.

 

I'd rather build around allay than Harden if we're going to build a team capable of beating GS

 

Uh no.

Thompson has never been near the best SG in the league.

 

The numbers do not support this, unless merely being on the Warriors elevates your perception. Shoot...maybe it does.