Draymond Green Claims Training Camp Was the End of Klay Thompson Chapter, Warriors Needed It

During his 11 seasons as a Golden State Warrior, Klay Thompson pretty much witnessed everything the franchise’s modern dynasty offered in the past decade or so. This included four Championship wins, the Dubs’ move from Oakland to San Francisco, and the team’s comeback Championship run after a few years of obscurity. However, Thompson is now gone and Draymond Green thinks that this should mark the beginning of a new chapter for the Warriors.

While answering questions from the media ahead of the 2024-25 season, Green explained how training camp felt weird this year without his longtime teammate.

“Klay, everything you see around here, including this building, Klay took part in making it happen,” the 2017 DPOY said.

But with a new season ahead, Draymond did not want to remain nostalgic for too long. He declared that this drastic change should be the shake off that the Warriors needed to turn into a brand new contender.

“Training camp almost felt, going to Hawaii almost felt like, it was the end of that chapter. And that’s what we needed,” Green added at Chase Center.

When many fans experienced heartache when the Splash Brothers split up, Green was going through the same. For over a decade, he had assisted and screened on Klay’s shots, schemed to defend opponents as a unit and notably, travelled to Hawaii for training camp every season.

Green clearly felt the void left by his teammate and friend. But travelling and working out with his new cast of teammates helped the 34-year-old see a new light at the end of the tunnel.

After all, the Warriors still have a job to do, and Kerr has made the necessary moves to try and account for the absence of their sharpshooting #11.

Have the Warriors plugged the Klay Thompson hole?

Steve Kerr has made it clear that the team is relying on a sophomore jump from Brandin Podziemski as Klay’s replacement. The shooting guard impressed with his versatile play, basketball IQ and high motor during his rookie campaign. Podz revealed that he has been asked to more than double his volume and attempt 8 to 10 three-pointers per game this season.

The Warriors generally intend to rely more heavily on their threes, a trend they followed during their preseason contests as well. Jonathan Kuminga was letting it fly with confidence too, improving his volume and efficiency. But the main piece they acquired to compensate for Klay Thompson’s offensive output is Buddy Hield.

Both shooting guards averaged a three-point attempt rate of over 60% last season. Over their last three campaigns, Thompson shot 39.7% of his threes while Hield shot 39.2%. But Hield faces an uphill battle if he wants to replicate Klay Thompson’s shooting volume.

The 31-year-old attempted 4.7 catch-and-shoot threes per game last season, knocking down 41.8% of them. But Klay was way ahead of him with 7.1 attempts falling at a 38.1% clip. Hield’s shot chart too, while not matching up in volume, does compare to Thompson’s tendencies.

Both players attempted just over 1 corner three per game last season, while the majority of their deep range shots came from above the break. Hield converted 38.7% of his 6.2 attempts outside of the corners while Thompson converted 37.8% of his 7.6 attempts.

Notably, both guards are minus defenders with Hield boasting a slightly better defensive rating (115.7) than Thompson (116.1). Hield is less likely to get into foul trouble and has shown more energy creating deflections and defending at the rim than Klay.

Many expect him to play Thompson’s spark plug role off the bench, as a back court of him and Stephen Curry would be too easy for defenses to exploit. With GSW taking on Portland in their season opener tomorrow, it’s only a matter of time before we see how their new-look roster fills in the gap left behind by Thompson.