Klay Thompson Is Golden State Warriors' Key, and That's Scary

Klay Thompson has become an extremely effective player for the Golden State Warriors, but for the Dubs to make good on the hints of championship potential they've shown this year, they'll need their shooting guard to bring his "A" game all the time.

Unfortunately, there have been stretches this year in which Thompson hasn't appeared particularly focused.

As a preliminary matter, this isn't a takedown of Thompson. Far from it, actually. The third-year shooting guard has molded himself into one of the league's deadliest snipers while simultaneously elevating his defensive game to borderline elite levels. If anything, the fact that we're nitpicking his game because he's so important to the Dubs' success is an acknowledgment of how far he's come as a player.

But there are still nits to pick.


Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

At present, Thompson is shooting an absurd 53 percent from the field and 51 percent from long range. And he's not amassing those percentages by picking his spots, either. Thompson is a high-volume shooter who has made the most three-point field-goals in the league this season.

He has shown the ability to completely dominate games for long stretches, and there have been periods this year when his jumper has single-handedly buried opponents. That was the case on opening night against the Los Angeles Lakers, as Thompson knocked down 15 of 19 from the field on the way to 38 points.

He was unstoppable.

But the very next game against the Los Angeles Clippers is a good example of the inconsistency that still plagues Thompson. In 38 minutes of a 126-115 loss, he took just seven shots.

He practically disappeared.

Another of Thompson's odd bouts of disengagement came Nov. 6 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. After looking a step slow in the first half, coach Mark Jackson issued a challenge to his star marksman.

Via The Sports Xchange: 

"

Thompson said Jackson challenged him by telling him to "wake up" and by saying the player he saw in the first half was "not the player he knows."

"

Thompson got the message, coming alive in the second half and salting the game away with 19 points in the fourth quarter. It was a signature for the Warriors at that juncture of the season. The Dubs lost Stephen Curry to a sprained knee and bruised ankle in the second half, and Thompson proved he could shoulder the offensive load.

It's important to highlight this game because it showed that despite Thompson's tendency to occasionally space out, a little prodding is generally effective in bringing his focus back.

Anecdotally, it's easy to tell when Thompson is fully engaged and when he isn't. When his switch is in the "off" position, he's less aggressive on offense and tends to commit a few more mistakes on the other end.

The game-to-game numbers in the early phases of this 2013-14 season support the idea that Thompson's focus comes and goes.

Over the Warriors' first six games this year, he essentially alternated good performances and bad ones. After scoring 38 points against the Lakers, he logged 10 against the Clips. His scoring totals for the next four games continued the trend: 27 against the Sacramento Kings, 15 against the Philadelphia 76ers, 30 against the Wolves and then just 11 against the San Antonio Spurs.

Thompson's four most recent contests have all been solid, but we're still seeing some relatively inconsistent effort within individual games.

On the year, Thompson has been less effective in the first halves of games. But after the break (and, presumably, a pep talk), he's been lights-out in third quarters. Here's a breakdown of his in-game splits:

	Field-Goal Percentage	3-Point Percentage
1st	.490	.409
2nd	.465	.526
3rd	.657	.667
4th	.545	.438

So, what's the explanation?


Guessing Games

It'd be a little reductive to pin Thompson's up-and-down performance on his focus alone.

His mental engagement is partially responsible for his inconsistency, but there are a number of contextual factors at work here, too.

For starters, Thompson's role lends itself to hot streaks and cold spells on offense. He's not a player who has the ball in his hands for long. When he gets it, he's either releasing it quickly on a catch-and-shoot attempt or putting on the deck for no more than one or two dribbles.

Basically, Thompson is a "play-ender," dependent on his team for touches.

Sometimes, the opponent's strategy, or the availability of more exploitable matchups elsewhere, dictate that he doesn't get as many opportunities to be involved.

Even when Thompson isn't getting regular touches, he's still one of the NBA's most valuable floor-stretching decoys. Defenders know that leaving him alone on the perimeter will almost certainly result in a buried jumper and an incredulous "didn't we talk about this?" look from a coach. So, he's still dangerous even when he isn't lighting up the scoreboard.

It's hard to know whether Thompson's occasional disengagement is the result of his lack of touches, or if he sometimes doesn't get involved with the offense because he's not working hard enough to get the ball.

Many of his non-spot-up opportunities on offense come from hard curls at the elbow or quick cuts off of pin-down screens. If he's not totally engaged, he sometimes doesn't move as quickly or decisively in his efforts to get open.

When he's not focused enough to get open, he doesn't get touches. When he's not getting touches, he loses focus. It's a real chicken-or-egg situation.


The Solution

Fortunately, as Andre Iguodala, the Warriors' biggest offseason addition, continues to gain familiarity with Thompson, he's getting better at helping his young protege avoid slumps.

Iggy has made it his personal mission to keep Thompson involved:

Iguodala's willingness to find his teammates should help Thompson stabilize his performances. More than that, though, the veteran's characterization of Klay's unusual personality indicates that the Warriors—as a team—understand that Thompson's occasionally fleeting focus isn't borne out of any sort of laziness or dissatisfaction.

He's just a weird dude.

Quiet, introverted and oftentimes aloof, Thompson is atypical in a field that generally rewards players for unchecked aggression.

Playing off of that idea, the Warriors can ensure that they get the best out of their terrific shooter by finding him more deliberately in the early going, making sure not to mistake his relaxed demeanor for apathy and sometimes reminding him that he needs to get focused.

And in a way, Thompson's attitude might end up being a benefit for the Warriors.

It's always best to stay as even-keeled as possible during the course of a season, and a cool head is even more important during the playoffs. Thompson's laid-back approach certainly kept any jitters at bay when he enjoyed his first postseason action last year.

In 12 postseason games, Klay actually shot the ball more efficiently from the field and from long range than he did during the 2012-13 regular season. And he did that while matching up against opponents' most dangerous perimeter threats.

Maybe the ability to zone out is actually a good thing.


Good Problems to Have

This is what it's come to with the Warriors: We're scrutinizing a 23-year-old stud who is shooting the lights out and defending the perimeter like few others in the NBA. Frankly, Thompson has never been better than he is right now, and he's making Jackson's boasts about his place among the NBA's top five shooting guards seem like an understatement.

But the Dubs are a team looking to solidify their position in the league's upper echelon, which means things that would otherwise fall under the heading of "nitpicking" become legitimate concerns. Among the league's elite, the margin for error is nearly invisible.

Perhaps it's a little troubling that such a vital part of the Warriors' championship-chasing mix needs a little kick-start once in a while. Ideally, Golden State would prefer all of its key pieces to be firing on all cylinders all the time.

But Thompson has only continued to improve in his third year, and he's shown signs of responding when the Warriors need him most. So, whenever Warriors fans get a little scared by Thompson's tendency to lose focus, they should remember that his opponents are the ones who are usually terrified.