To hear at least one retired NBA player tell it, much of the league’s players and coaches had reason to celebrate Klay Thompson’s decision to leave Stephen Curry and the Warriors.
That’s because their jobs should be easier without having to develop and implement game plans to defend the most spectacular offensive backcourt in NBA history.
“A nightmare,” Chandler Parsons told NBC Sports Bay Area during the recent American Century Championship golf tournament at Lake Tahoe.
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“It was exhausting,” Parsons added. “You’ve got to jump out on screens to try and face guard them and deny them the ball. And then their conditioning is so good, just never stopping, non-stop moving. Obviously, if they get a second of space [the shot is] going up and they're usually making it.
“Two devastating guys to guard.”
When Steve Kerr was hired as head coach in 2014-15, he installed an offense designed around motion of both players and the ball. Thompson and Curry thrived in the system, routinely ranking among league leaders in total miles per game.
After the Warriors finished 67-15 – then a franchise record – in Kerr’s first season, he finished second behind Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks in the voting for Coach of the Year. Curry made a second consecutive trip to the NBA All-Star Game and Thompson received the honor for the first time.
Golden State Warriors
The creative synergy of the Kerr-Curry-Thompson trio made the offense the talk of the league. Parsons, an emerging star whose career ended in 2020 due to injuries sustained in a car accident, was among the admirers.
“It's a great system, and Kerr’s a great coach, but the system [was] Klay and Steph,” Parsons said. “If you put them on any franchise they're going to have that system, they're going to have success with it when those guys in their prime. They’re so elite at what they do, such good shooters that draw so much attention where it gives other guys on the floor so many easier looks.
“So, yeah, it's a great system when you have arguably the two greatest shooters of all time.”
Kerr’s goal for next season is to integrate three new veterans – Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De’Anthony Melton – into Golden State’s offensive system. Hield, often among the NBA leaders in mileage per game, seems to fit as neatly as Thompson.
Parsons, who sustained his career-ending injuries in the final season of a four-year contract worth $94.4 million, grasps the reasons behind Thompson’s decision to head elsewhere upon becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer.
“The Klay Thompson thing is weird, right? You just picture him as a Warrior,” Parsons said. “You picture him you know working for the Warriors and being [with the franchise], which probably still will happen afterwards.
“I understand. From a player standpoint, you want to get paid. You want to take advantage of the opportunity. It's just weird to see him in a different jersey.”
Watching Thompson wearing No. 31 with the Mavericks instead of No. 11 with the Warriors will require some eye-rubbing.
Parsons, 35, has evolved and become an opinionated NBA observer. He will have to adjust, just like the Warriors and the rest of the league.
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