In the Summer, one of the teams in the mix to land Kevin Love was the Golden State Warriors. Their main piece of trade bait to lure the Timberwolves was Klay Thompson, who has become one of the NBA's finest shooters. While many think that giving up Klay Thompson for Kevin Love would have been a good move for the Warriors, I am of the opinion that it is actually good that the Kevin Love trade talks fell through and that Klay Thompson is still a member of the Golden State Warriors. What's better, is that the Warriors are now looking to sign him to a multi-year contract extension.
The reasons I have for holding the opinion that I do has to do with both the present state of the Warriors and the future of the Warriors. I.e. I think retaining Klay Thompson keeps the Warriors better for the present and for the future. I will now state what those reasons are as well as an explanation for why they are good reasons.
First of all, trading Klay Thompson would have been a radical departure from the Warriors' identity as a three-point shooting team. What has made the Warriors so dangerous over these past couple of seasons has been their ability to stretch the floor and knock down shots from three-point range. Last season, the Warriors made 38% of their three-points shots, which tied the Wizards for 4th best in the entire NBA in that category. In addition, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry were both ranked in the top ten in the entire NBA for 3-point percentage, making them the best three-point shooting duo in the NBA.
Trading Klay Thompson for Kevin Love would no longer give the Warriors the distinct advantage of having two elite three-point shooters in their starting backcourt which is an advantage the Warriors should hang on to at all costs. Barring a trade which lands them Kevin Durant or LeBron James, the Warriors would be foolish to make a trade which would give up that distinct advantage over every other team in the NBA.
A second reason I have for why it's good the Warriors still have Klay Thompson has to do with the emotional and psychological well-being of Stephen Curry, their superstar point guard. Stephen Curry says he likes playing with Klay Thompson and there is no reason not to believe him judging by how he plays when Thompson is on the floor. Curry is coming off of his best season ever, a season in which he made the All-Star team and averaged 24.0 points per game and 8.5 assists.
If Stephen Curry says he likes playing with Klay Thompson, that in and of itself is a good enough reason to hang on to Klay Thompson. We can just end the conversation right there. Of course, there's more than just that reason, but it's a very good one and one that the Warriors' management probably didn't consider as much as they should have during the process of courting Kevin Love.
I also think the fact that Klay Thompson keeps getting better is another great reason for the Warriors to hang on to him. If Thompson showed signs of regression or stagnation, the Warriors might be wise to trade him while his value is high. But since he continues to improve and get better, there really is no good reason for the Warriors to trade him.
In his third and most recent season, Thompson averaged 18.4 points per game which was almost 6 points better than his rookie season in which he averaged 12.5 points per game. I expect Thompson to average over 20 points per game next season and possibly as much as 24-25 points per game in his prime. The potential for that kind of improvement is just too much for the Warriors to give up on after just three seasons.
Finally, I don't think trading Klay Thompson for Kevin Love brings the Warriors a championship. If I thought that such a trade would bring the Warriors a championship, then I obviously would be writing a very different article right now. The fact of the matter is that trading Klay Thompson to get Kevin Love would make the Warriors different but not necessarily any closer to their goal of winning a championship.
As a matter of fact, it might have had a negative effect on the team. In order to get Love, the Warriors would also have had to part ways with Harrison Barnes and likely David Lee. Those guys are important players on the Warriors, too and there's no telling what their departure in addition to Klay Thompson's departure would have done to the team. It's better to keep a good thing intact than to blow up a good thing in hopes that what gets pieced back together is somehow better.
I personally don't think adding Love at the expense of Lee, Barnes, and Thompson would have been worth it. I'm certain that such a move would not bring the Warriors a championship and I'm confident that at best it wouldn't have made them any better. The risk simply wasn't worth the reward in this case.
In conclusion, the Warriors are better off with Klay Thompson on their roster than they are with Kevin Love. It's no knock on Kevin Love, who is arguably the best power forward in basketball. His ability to rebound the basketball and score from a wide range of places on the court makes him a very desirable piece to add to your basketball team. However, he doesn't fit with the Warriors nearly as well as Klay Thompson does, which is why it's best for the Warriors to stick with Klay Thompson and see how they can fit him into their long-term plans.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord
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