Steve Kerr Assures Klay Thompson Minutes Ramp-Up
As he continues to find his rhythm, it’s obvious Klay Thompson is trying to overdo his minutes. He’s taken a lion’s share of shots despite playing only 20 minutes a night. Is this necessarily a problem? For now, not really: It’s as good a time as ever for Thompson to return to the line-up and get some shots up. While this stretch of the schedule has been a challenging one as the Dubs face several top teams on the road, it could create an advantage of having those teams not see plays the Warriors may run them out of the gym with in the playoffs.
The perennial All-NBA and All-Defensive swingman has had a solid return to the season, but head coach Steve Kerr sees more minutes in Thompson’s near future:
As ClutchPoints reporter Mark Haynes has quoted here, Kerr mentioned recently that Klay should see a minutes bump as Steph Curry will sit against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
We should expect to see about 24-ish minutes from Klay, per Coach Kerr himself, and plenty of offense ran for him. The Warriors have not had Thompson in their arsenal for over two years now, which should mean that teams will not be able to run proper coverages against sets for him. As the coaching staff continues to make adjustments surrounding his return, Thompson himself should see his numbers start to average out.
Sunday will be an interesting case, as Klay will have the run of the scoring for the most part against the Wolves. While Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole have been phenomenal contributors, Minnesota is not currently in a position to where the Warriors may have to gameplan for them in the playoffs. This could be different down the road, but a current play-in level team may be a good gauge for what they can get away with against more solidified competition.
Klay Thompson will be an integral part of the Warriors for the remainder of the year, as he’s obviously the clear-cut starting shooting guard. He’s already helped Steph Curry somewhat return from his slumping numbers the past 20 or so games, but there’s plenty of work to be done before he’s fully integrated back into the offense.
(Photo credit: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)