Klay Thompson has been thriving since he was moved to the bench and his longtime teammate Draymond Green has spoken about the bold move by Steve Kerr.
February 15 was the first time Thompson came off the bench since his rookie year after struggling as a starter for most of the season.
The move has well and truly paid off as Klay had another baller night from the bench in the Warriors’ 128-121 victory, where he scored 26 points on 9-15 shooting.
Green has a massive amount of respect for his teammate for embracing his new role and spoke highly of him after the win.
“It shows his maturity,” Green said. “He’s been starting since halfway through his rookie season. And to have a resume like he has. Build up an organization like he has. And then you’re asked to take on a bench role. There’s not many people that know how that feels, but there was a bunch of people that wanted to judge him. I thought that early on, he was too worried about how people were judging him, and now he don’t care. And once he stop caring, his game did what we know Klay Thompson is capable of doing…We want to extend this as long as we can. This is our baby. We built this thing from the ground up.”
Green along with Klay and Steph Curry are chasing another championship to add to their collection of four rings.
With Thompson on the bench and getting ideal lineups, they are one step closer to that dream.
The Warriors and Klay are yet to come to an agreement on a new contract and if they are unable to before the season’s end, Thompson may hit the market as an unrestricted free agent.
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