The departure of Klay Thompson was by far the Golden State Warriors' biggest story of a truly transformational offseason. His potential defection in free agency loomed over the Dubs throughout 2023-24, tempting the end of an era as rookie Brandin Podziemski established himself as a franchise fixture and despite Stephen Curry and Draymond Green already being re-cemented as Golden State's flag bearers going forward.
No matter how they fared on the floor in 2024-25 and beyond, everyone knew the Warriors' decade-long dynasty died when Thompson agreed to terms with the Dallas Mavericks in early July. The only question left was how Steve Kerr and company would respond to life without Thompson for the first time.
Easily overlooked amid weeks of summer drama that only increased once Golden State made serious trade bids for Paul George and Lauri Markkanen were the players coming back to San Francisco in the four-team trade that ultimately landed Thompson in Dallas.
Kyle Anderson's playmaking prowess from the frontcourt and versatile, hyper-disruptive defense aligned well with the Dubs' longstanding identity under Kerr. Even his staunchest proponents, though, surely didn't quite realize the extent to which Buddy Hield would prove a hand-in-glove fit as Thompson's replacement given just how forgettable his stint with the Philadelphia 76ers was last season.
Ahead of the shorthanded Warriors' first matchup of a tough five-game road trip that tips off on Saturday, Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka was asked what he's seen from Hield in the season's early going.
“Klay Thompson all over again,” he said, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “That’s how they’re using him.”
How Buddy Hield is picking up Klay Thompson's long-range slack with Warriors
The numbers speak for themselves. Despite Curry missing his third straight game on Saturday with a sprained left ankle, Golden State has lived up to Kerr's preseason edict of relying even more on the long ball this season than in years past. The Warriors are attempting 47.8% of their shots from beyond the arc, tied for fifth-most in the league and 5.3 points higher than their share during Thompson's swan song.
Kevon Looney and Trayce Jackson-Davis are the only rotation players who don't have a readily available green light from beyond the arc for this Golden State team. Still, Hield hasn't just picked up the Dubs' slack left by Thompson in terms of long-range volume, but is letting fly with the type of aggressive abandon even Curry's forever Splash Brother never managed across his 11 injury-free seasons in the Bay.
Hield is launching a whopping 19.1 triples per 100 possessions so far, easily the highest mark of his career. Thompson, meanwhile, didn't surpass a personal best of 15.3 three-point attempts per 100 possessions with the Warriors, set upon his long-awaited return to the court midway through 2021-22.
As underrated a marksman he's been since entering the league in 2016, it's still safe to say Hield won't finish his Golden State debut shooting 50% from beyond the arc. The three-point attempts he's hunted have largely come within flow of the Warriors' offense, though, many even courtesy of the staple offensive actions in which Thompson thrived for nearly a decade.
How many times did we see Thompson screen for Curry on the ball during their storied tenure as teammates?
Think back to the hundreds of layups the mere threat of Thompson's jumper created for the Warriors running post splits.
Even past-his-prime Thompson routinely drew two to the ball via dribble hand-offs, leaving him ample space to find the roll man for easy finishes.
This two-man dance of a dribble hand-off and re-screen became second nature for Thompson and Green many, many years ago.
Those gaudy three-point numbers and eerily familiar plays above be damned, it's reductive to submit that Hield really is Thompson ” all over again.”
The former is still more of a defensive liability than the latter this season, let alone before Thompson suffered those devastating back-to-back lower-body injuries at the top of the decade. Golden State won't be affording Hield the post-up opportunities or even amount of high ball screens Thompson got last season or before, fully understanding he's better off exploiting advantages than creating them himself. Once Curry gets back on the court, Hield will revert back to the nightly bench role that Thompson only briefly played in 2023-24.
But the broad scope of Udoka's point stands regardless, as does the notion that the suddenly cost-conscious Warriors are better off paying Hield approximately $28 million through 2026-27 than giving Thompson $50 million over that same timeframe.
Is he an objectively better player than Thompson at this point? Probably not. For where the Dubs find themselves amid Curry's extended prime, though, Hield really does seem like a superior fit both on the court and in cap sheets.
Follow Us
Subscribe
