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Golden State Warriors president of basketball operations and general manager Bob Myers says Klay Thompson was so quiet during their NBA Draft dinner.
The Warriors selected Thompson with the 11th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Klay has turned into a superstar player for the Dubs in a short amount of time (h/t Drew Shiller of NBC Sports Bay Area):
“He barely said a word. He barely said anything,” Myers told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on the most recent episode of “The TK Show” podcast. “He's looking down at his plate. Couldn't tell if he was shy, insecure, scared.
“Didn't have any idea if he could play this kind of defense. Thought he was probably competitive. Put up big numbers at Washington State. The truth was, if you were at that dinner — and you would have not been wrong — got up and been like, ‘This guy is not ready for the NBA.'
“So you have to factor all that in. And you say, ‘Well, does it matter that he's been around it and his dad was in it? How do we make sense of all this?'”
Thompson won't play this season for the Warriors, as he's still rehabbing his ACL injury. The Warriors were always going to be cautious with Thompson since they gave him a five-year max contract this past summer worth $190 million. Klay’s long-term health is very important to the organization.
Thompson averaged 21.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists for the Warriors in 2018-19 during the regular season. The five-time All-Star shot 46.7 percent from the field, 40.2 percent from beyond the arc and 81.6 percent from the free-throw line.
In the 2019 playoffs, Thompson put up 20.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists. The Warriors lost to the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals in six games, with Thompson tearing his ACL in Game 6.
