Warriors still have a Klay-sized hole to fill at midseason originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
His shoes would always be impossible to fill. But the shape of how Klay Thompson’s piece fit into the Warriors’ puzzle began to take shape, for just a few games and not for longer than that.
Thompson is no longer a warrior. The memories will always be there, but the two sides moved on last summer, and perhaps even before that. Thompson wears a different logo on his jersey than the one he represented for over a decade. His numbers aren’t the same, and neither is the position he plays after forming the best backcourt in NBA history alongside Steph Curry.
Nearly halfway through Klay’s first season in Dallas Mavericks threads and a No. 31 jersey, the Warriors are living the lesson of how hard it is to replace the old version of half the Splash Brothers while the one still in Golden State Lives is on the losing side of the Toronto Raptors, losers in 16 of their previous 17 games, despite scoring 26 points with seven rebounds and seven assists just two months shy of his 37th birthday.
With Draymond Green (back/illness) and Jonathan Kuminga (ankle), Warriors coach Steve Kerr opted to go with a strong starting lineup on Monday night at Scotiabank Arena. Andrew Wiggins slid forward to form a frontcourt with center Trayce Jackson-Davis. Dennis Schröder remained alongside Curry in the starting backcourt and Buddy Hield came in on offense.
Schröder and Hield combined for 20 points on 8-of-25 shooting (32 percent) and 4-of-16 on threes (25 percent). Each had made as many turnovers (two) as three-pointers.
“We have a lot of off-ball things we do, and when he’s guarded like that, we like to get him to set screens,” Kerr said after the loss when asked how he could put pressure on Curry with the way he he is guarded. “We have to be able to free other people. That should loosen up the defense. That’s where he can start moving after the screen, after the play.”
Teams aren’t afraid of the Warriors, who fell below .500 for the first time this season at 19-20 in a loss that gave the Raptors their ninth win of the season and fourth since Dec. 1. They fear Curry in his 16th season, playing with tendinitis in both knees and his right shooting thumb wrapped and completely taped.
The twenty points Wiggins scored on thirteen shots are not intimidation. Hield’s shooting rollercoaster won’t faze teams guarding Curry, nor will Schröder’s lack of comfort in Kerr’s offense.
Hield would be the shooter who could step into Thompson’s role. When the Warriors were 12-3 through their first 15 games, Hield exceeded expectations and posted better numbers than Thompson. Since then, a few big shooting nights have felt like nothing more than a mirage. The Warriors are 9-0 when he scores 18 or more points. Seven of those came in their first twelve games.
The worst of the Buddy Hield Experience was seen late in the Warriors’ loss in Toronto. With the Warriors leading by one point, 101-100, and only 1:49 left in the game, Golden State had the ball out of bounds with just 2.4 seconds on the shot clock. Kerr called a great out-of-bounds play with Hield coming off a Jackson-Davis screen and breaking free for a wide-open three from the right corner that rattled off the rim.
His attempt at a game-winning three on the Warriors’ final offensive possession wasn’t close in a game where Hield had eight points and missed eight 3-pointers, going 2-of-10.
“He looked good and he’s a great, great shooter,” Kerr said of Hield. “We know that. I think he’s pushing a bit. I think all our guys are pressing because they know our margin for error is small. He just presses. But I trust him.
“I used him for the last action because I always believe he will make the next move. He gives us space even when he’s not making shots. He gives us space. People respect him. They guard him and he opens the floor. I’ll keep playing against him, I’ll keep trusting him.”
It’s been a month since the Warriors traded for Schröder. The 12-year veteran guard has played 14 games for the Warriors, going 5-9. He averaged 18.4 points on 45.2 percent shooting and 38.7 percent on 3-pointers for the Brooklyn Nets before the trade, and is now at 10.1 points per game on 33.8 percent shooting and a 22.5 3-point percentage.
Moses Moody played 14 minutes off the bench and scored one point. Moody missed all six shots he made, including three 3-pointers, in Toronto. Brandin Podziemski was sidelined in sweatpants and a hoodie for the ninth straight game due to an abdominal injury.
When the Warriors meet the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday to wrap up a four-game road trip, it will have been 11 months since the last and last player to wear a No. 11 Golden State jersey was benched for Podziemski . The hard-hitting Podziemski, a No. 19 overall pick out of Santa Clara, was named First Team All-Rookie and considered Curry’s new running mate, all averaging 8.0 points and a 29.5 3-point percentage in the 30 games (eight starts) played in his second season as a pro.
De’Anthony Melton was the answer – for six games and two starts. The combination of brash offensively not being afraid of the moment and a long-armed defensive machine was the combination that always worked best for Curry. The real tragedy involving Thompson clutching his left knee on the floor of Oracle Arena in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals wasn’t just the 30 points in 32 minutes he had already scored. That was the season where all his efforts to man big guards like James Harden and stay ahead of athletic wonders like Russell Westbrook got flowers in the form of Thompson’s first All-Defensive team selection.
There’s no telling what the version of him, averaging 14.2 points on 41.3 percent shooting and 38.5 percent on threes, would do for these Warriors right now. The version that disappeared into the bay’s blanket of fog that evening in June 2019 was still impossible to replace, and it might always remain that way.
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