Klay Thompson is no longer the player he was with the Golden State Warriors but the Miami Heat are counting on him as a nightly contributor
Among the biggest questions surrounding the Miami Heat this season is Klay Thompson.
Everyone is wondering how much he has left in the tank. At 36, he is no longer the player who starred alongside Steph Curry and Draymond Green to win NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors.
Green was among those to say Thompson is on the down side of his career. Others have blasted that take, including former NFL receiver turned media personality Chad Ochocinco.
"We don't need Klay to look like he did in Golden State," he said on the Tobin and LeRoy Show. "We don't need that. A wide open Klay can hit shots."
Thompson is coming off the worst individual performance last season with the Dallas Mavericks. His scoring average was the lowest of his career. The positive is he will have a completely different role with the Heat than he had with the Warriors.
No longer is he asked to score 20-25 points a game. Those days are over. The Heat are building their offense around the frontcourt of Bam Adebayo and newly-acquired Giannis Antetokounmkpo, who they grabbed in a blockbuster trade during the summer.
Thompson is expected to take a role similar to when the Heat signed Ray Allen in the summer of 2013. He was brought in as a perimeter scorer to play off LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. That team won a championship before losing in the Finals to the same San Antonio Spurs the following year.
This could end well for the Heat long as Thompson can help free up space for Antetokounmpo and Adebayo while fulfilling the role of spot-up shooter.
Despite his age, Thompson is still one of the best perimeter players in NBA history. That's what his father, Mychal, explained in a recent interview.
“If people don’t think Klay can be Klay anymore, leave him open," Thompson said on SiriusXM NBA Radio. "Don’t guard him. Don’t face guard him."
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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of HeatRoundtable. He can be reached at [email protected]
