Steve Kerr is ready to ride-or-die with Klay Thompson in the playoffs.
“How can I not?” Kerr told 95.7 hosts Damon Bruce and Ray Ratto Tuesday. “Everything he’s done for the franchise. As skilled as he is. As powerful as he is. Two-and-a-half years off, you don’t think it’s going to take time to find his rhythm? Like, he’s had a few bad games, let’s bench him? What are we even talking about here?”
During his weekly appearance on 95.7 The Game’s “Damon & Ratto”, coach Kerr let everyone know how he really feels about any premature chatter of Klay’s decline. You can hear the full interview above.
Kerr’s right about the doubters. While Thompson was struggling in March and Jordan Poole was ascending into a new stratosphere, some openly questioned if Thompson should be moved to a bench role. Sounds like that was never a possibility for Kerr, and for good reason.
After fully recovering from his ACL and Achilles injuries, Thompson is peaking at the right time for the Warriors. In the regular-season finale against the New Orleans Pelicans, Thompson exploded for a season-high 41 points.
“Individually, a great cap to the regular season,” Thompson said after the game. “A lot of ups and downs for myself this season, but I stuck with it and I will continue to do that. Some great momentum going into the playoffs. I can’t wait. I’m so excited for the playoffs. Having to watch the last two years was painful. To be back and be a part of it, I can’t keep thinking about.”
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Thompson finished the season on something of a heater, averaging 30.8 points and 6 made 3-pointers over his last six games while shooting 48 percent from the floor and 45 percent from 3-point land.
As Kerr noted, Thompson jumped into the fold while everyone else was still in midseason form.
“The first month is usually just training camp,” Kerr said. “I’ve gone back to a lot of Klay’s seasons where he was right in his prime pre-injury where he got off to terribly slow starts. And that was after a month of practices and exhibition games. Sometimes for shooters, it takes a while anyways. For a guy who was out for two-and-a-half years? That was my thinking, was don’t expect this to happen in a month or six weeks. He’s gotta get his legs underneath him. I don’t know how long it’s been, maybe three months now, it looks to me like he’s really in a good place.”
Looking at the big picture, Kerr thinks this is just another launching pad for the 32-year-old’s career.
“Klay’s got so much more to give,” Kerr said. “He’s so young, he’s so skilled that he’s got a lot of good years left in him. I think the last couple weeks have been the most consistent stretch. Most of it has come with patience. He looks like he’s just taking better shots over and over again. Whereas early on, he was trying to get it all back at once and taking a lot of off-balance shots. He just looks like he’s got his feet underneath him now and things are slowing down for him in a good way.”
