Not many expected Klay Thompson to shine early on in the 2022-23 season as he was going to take some time to get going but he struggled mightily to start off. Klay played a lot worse than expected and there were growing calls at one point for him to be benched.
One of the many in the media to criticize Klay was Charles Barkley who stated toward the end of October that Klay just isn’t the same anymore. It drew an emotional reaction out of Thompson who felt that the criticism was unfair and added that he needed more time to get back to playing at a high level. Klay certainly improved as the season went on but admitted recently that he regrets responding to Barkley.
“Yeah, man, I’m mad I even addressed that,” Thompson says now. “It’s like, only time will tell. I just gotta hoop and let the talkers talk. Like, what else do I got to prove, man? At this point, it’s all gravy, playing with house money.”
He definitely shouldn’t have responded and should have just let his play do the talking for him. As he says, only time will tell and if Klay balled out and helped the Warriors defend their title, then he would have the last laugh anyway. It just seems like Thompson was a bit on edge at the start of this season. He beefed with Ronnie 2K for a while because he wasn’t happy with his 3-point shooting rating on NBA 2K23 before coming to his senses and apologizing.
The Warriors Need Klay Thompson To Step Up
Klay was in the midst of his best stretch of play this season at the start of this month, but his performances have dipped ever since Stephen Curry went down with a shoulder injury. Thompson’s last 3 games have seen him average 13.3 PPG on 34.9% shooting from the field and 31.8% from beyond the arc, which are similar numbers to what he was putting up at the start of the season.
The Warriors need Klay to shine now, more so than ever before as Steph will be out for a fair bit. If he can’t step up, it is hard to see Golden State winning a lot of games in Curry’s absence. They have already lost three of four without him and look to be in a bit of trouble as we get ready to enter the new year.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
