Klay Thompson’s return wasn’t the only milestone the veteran Warriors swingman hit last night. In a return where he scored 17 points on 18 shots in 20 minutes, Thompson had a few other milestones with his 3-for-8 three-point shooting, including eclipsing 12,000 career points. He also became the second fastest player to hit 1800 threes in his career.

The only person to do it faster? Thompson’s Splash Brother, Stephen Curry.

It’s crazy to think how close he was prior to his injury, so much so that only 3 triples pushed him into the club. Thompson will likely be, at the end of his career, considered the second greatest shooter of all-time. Unlike Curry, however, he’ll be much closer stylistically to the pantheon of shooters including Ray Allen and Reggie MIller.

While James Harden is fast-approaching, Thompson (despite missing two full seasons) converts threes generally at a higher rate, mostly through similar volume and better percentages. Harden’s degree of difficulty is often higher by virtue of his role as an on-ball guard, but in terms of catch-and-shoot, there’s even now a case to have Klay above Miller and Allen.

Realistically speaking, Thompson will probably eclipse 2,000 next season. He has over half the season left to play, with his record being 276 in a single season, so the odds aren’t on his side to make it there this year. Especially when you account for Steph Curry’s volume, as he’s on pace to break his record of 402 in a single season, that’s a lot of shots not being taken by Klay Thompson.

If last night’s offense was any indication, however, it looks that Klay will actually be getting a lot of shots. The questions then become, of course, how will that affect specifically Andrew Wiggins? Jordan Poole will likely not be affected as much, as he’ll be taking a lot of bench minutes and will probably not be playing in guard-heavy lineups including Klay save for the end of the game if the Warriors need some instant offense. But he will probably not lose a lot with Thompson’s return.

Wiggins, on the other hand, has a very similar role as Thompson did, although he does bring more self-created offense. The two would actually work excellently in a lineup together, but considering the rhythm Wiggins has gotten, any lost shots would not be productive towards that.

It’ll be hard to tell what the future holds, but as Thompson is in the hunt for 2k threes, his pedigree as a scorer will diversify how the Warriors are able to dismantle team defenses. Obviously, he gives Steph a lot more spacing just by being on the court (and we saw the impact of that last night), and he figures to continue to keep defenses honest to the benefit of any the off-the-dribble scorers around him. He’s even shown that he can get his own shot to a certain degree in his first game back, which would add a whole other dimension that was not anticipated.

(Photo credit: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)