Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson took a leap in his fourth season after not being traded for Kevin Love and securing a four-year, $70 million contract extension from Golden State. Thompson set career highs in numerous statistical categories, and his sterling performance helped the Warriors win 67 regular-season games and ultimately an NBA championship.
Klay Thompson can make another leap by learning from Jimmy Butler
Thompson became an All-Star by becoming a more efficient offensive player. He can cement his status as a star if he nudges his shot distribution closer to that of fellow All-Star Jimmy Butler.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
The scary thing for the rest of the NBA is that Thompson can get even better. He should take a few pointers from fellow breakout star Jimmy Butler to reach yet another level.
Like Thompson, Butler made a big leap this past season, becoming the Chicago Bulls' best player by turning into a versatile offensive threat that can score from anywhere on the court and get to the free throw line at a high rate.
Butler will never be the outside shooter Thompson is, but the Bulls star nearly matched Thompson’s 59-percent true shooting mark by taking a lot of shots at the rim (nearly 37 percent of his attempts, per NBA.com) and getting to the free throw line more than seven times a game. Those are exactly the areas that Thompson must continue to improve to take another leap.
He’s already started making those strides. Just look at Thompson’s shot charts from 2013-14 and 2014-15:
Not only did Thompson increase the amount of shots he took in the paint overall and in the restricted area, but he increased his percentages as well. That 64-percent mark in the restricted area was better than league average and Butler’s own 60-percent mark. Thompson can certainly finish once he gets all the way to the rim. The next step is doing it more often.
Thompson certainly shouldn’t shoot fewer three-pointers, so instead we should look at those mid-range attempts and paint shots that aren’t in the restricted area. Those kind of shots comprised more than 39 percent of his attempts last season. While he shot above the league average from those zones, he’ll be even more efficient if he traded some of those attempts in for shots in the restricted area.
He just needs to be thinking layup over jumper. Here’s a play in which Thompson had an opportunity to go strong to the basket in transition, only to miss a fadeaway jumper:
Becoming more aggressive going to the basket will also result in more free throw attempts. Thompson improved in that area last season, attempting a career-high 3.3 free throws a game and notching a career-high .197 free throw rate during the regular season. Both marks have increased in each of his four seasons. But those numbers also went down to 2.1 and .135 in the postseason, respectively, showing the limits of his improvement.
It’s unfair to expect Thompson to fully duplicate Butler’s ability to get to the basket, just as it’d be unfair to expect Butler to fully duplicate Thompson’s picture-perfect jumper. The Bulls guard has an advantage in strength and has a bevy of James Harden-esque tricks he uses to draw fouls.
Still, Thompson can get better by adding some strength himself, tightening up his handle and incorporating some of those tricks into his repertoire. Those improvements will make it easier for him to attacking mismatches on the pick-and-roll and avoid finishes like this, when he settled for a mid-range jumper against Houston's Kostas Papanikolaou:
Thompson got to the free throw line on only 6 percent of his pick-and-rolls, per Synergy Sports Techology. Butler’s mark, on the other hand, was more than 22 percent. Even a jump into double figures will increase Thompson’s efficiency even more considering how automatic he is from the line.
Additional Thompson improvement would offset a possible roadblock in the Warriors' quest to repeat as champions, whether that's injuries, a stronger Western Conference or certain game planning by opponents. It'd take even more pressure off Stephen Curry and give Golden State another reliable outlet to score efficiently if the jumpers aren't falling on a given night.
The Warriors don’t necessarily need Thompson to make another leap with all that talent in place. He’s already a very good player on a loaded team that won the title. But if he can incorporate some of Butler’s strengths into his game, it’ll give Golden State a better chance of repeating and sustaining long-term success.
See More:
