Klay Thompson is a pure shooter. He is out there to knock down jumpers, and while he can do a few other things on the court he gets paid to be one of the better sharpshooters in the league (although second best on his team).
He’s not a lockdown defender. He works on that end, but that’s not his wheelhouse. Yet last season he was often given the defensive assignment of the best perimeter player on the other team. He did his best.
This season, Andre Iguodala gets that assignment. And Thompson is plenty happy about that, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.“It is a relief,” Thompson said from the Warriors’ downtown Oakland facility Wednesday. “Going up against the best guy every night was fun, but now I can focus on exerting just as much energy on the offensive end as I was on the defensive end.
“Last year, when I was busting my tail to chase Tony Parker around a triple screen and then tried to do the same thing on the offensive end, it got tiring. I’m not going to lie,” Thompson said. “But this year, we have so much balance and so much depth that you can play your hardest and get a blow without there being a drop-off.”
While the Warriors offense picked up the second half of last season and should be solidly in the league’s top third this season, the defense last season was pedestrian. If Golden State is going to take a step forward off the 47 wins and second round of the playoffs it will be because of improvement on the defensive end.
Iguodala, along with a healthy Andrew Bogut, are the keys to that defense. Thompson will get his breaks. And everyone in Golden State will be happy with that arrangement.