Getting to know Klay Thompson

Klay Thompson

Today I’m going to be taking a look at Klay Thompson

Physicals

Height: 6’ 7” (6’ 9” wingspan)

Weight: 205 lbs

Birthday: 2-08-1990 (21 year old; Junior from Washington State)

*Shooting Guard

*Top 5 Shooting Guard/Wing, top 20 overall

Klay is another player that will most likely be available at the #12. Whether we go big or small with the #3 there is still a good chance we take him, so I decided getting familiar with his name would be a good idea.

Klay is one of the best shooters in the draft, maybe second to Jimmer. This is easily his greatest strength. He shoots best when spotting up and coming off screens, he is absolutely deadly when left wide open. He has great mechanics for a shooter, a nice repetitive motion with a good release. His height is a huge boost for his shooting, giving him the chance to shoot over a lot of shorter perimeter defenders. He has great size and length to play the shooting guard position at the NBA level. Klay’s ability to work without the ball (finding open spots, working with screens, etc.) is very good. This is where he shows up his high motor, as he will work hard to set himself up for a good shot. Klay does not struggle with taking bad shots, and seems to be pretty efficient. He is also a good passer for a wing. He’s not going to be your team’s main facilitator or play-maker obviously, but he will and can make the good right pass when the option is there or the team needs him to.

I’m putting “creating your own shot” as a weakness for Klay. This depends on how you look at it, if you look at Klay as primarily a spot up shooting guard (like Korver), then he actually has a decent ability to create his own shot. However he is more below average at creating his own shot if you look at him as more of a wing player, which is how I am looking at him. His dribble/handle isn’t the best, but he can improve here (could depend on what situation he gets drafted into). Klay also struggles defending. This will hurt him even more when he starts playing against elite wings. Fortunately he has the size and length to guard either the shooting guard or small forward, but he will need to make some big strides in the area before he can be considered a good defender. Lastly he lacks athleticism for a wing (but then again you can look at him as a spot up shooting guard, where you don’t need athleticism). Don’t let his awesome dunk (#1 on SC top ten I think) make you think he is a great athlete, his isn’t horrible, I mean he can get up to the rim, but if he wants to see time at the small forward, he’ll need to improve.

*Don’t forget that Klay was suspended a game for possession of Marijuana. I am not concerned with this, he responded well and has a good “learn-from-my-mistakes” attitude (like Big Al and his DUI incident). I don’t think he is going to have Ron Artest/Michael Beasley problems.

Klay is a very good player, and has the potential to be a nice role player and possible starter for an NBA team. It’s good that Klay should be able to improve most of his weaknesses; you can’t teach height/length but you can teach defense/ball-handling.

There is a good chance that the Jazz draft Klay; they will for sure have him do a few work outs and take a good look at him. Also, I don’t think that it matters much whether the Jazz draft big (Kanter?) or small (Knight?) with the #3, because they could still pick him up without creating any major log-jams.