Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr gave some interesting thoughts on Klay Thompson’s benching in the Warriors’ win over the Nets.
For the past 13 years or so, Klay Thompson has helped define an era of Golden State Warriors basketball. But alas, everyone (except LeBron James, perhaps) succumbs to Father Time. Thompson has endured one of the worst seasons of his Hall of Fame career, and now, he continues to dig new depths after the Warriors decided to close out their 109-98 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night with Gui Santos, Moses Moody, and Brandin Podziemski all getting more burn.
Santos, in particular, has been a revelation; he has played sparingly for the Warriors in his rookie year, and yet there he was, closing out the game alongside Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, and Podziemski instead of Thompson. This appears to be a marked shift in the Warriors’ approach in massaging Thompson’s ego, although Curry is not worried about how it would impact his fellow Splash Brother.
“I know he wants to be out there on the floor, like he’s a champion. He’s a guy that’s been as much a part of all our success as anybody. The challenge as we get deeper into our careers is the adjustments that we all have to make to try to continue winning at the highest level. The way this game works, there’s ebbs and flows,” Curry said, per Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area.
“It’s about just staying positive, staying ready. He still played 30 minutes… just stay in it. Everything comes back around.”
Meanwhile, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has been much more flexible as of late. Criticized for his handling of Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody’s minutes, Kerr has shown more willingness to give his youngsters more playing time, and against the Nets, he stuck with what was working.
“If the group’s playing well, you just stay with that group. We stayed with the group because they were really competing and making plays and they had the momentum,” Kerr said, via Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “[Klay’s] fine. It’s not easy for a guy who’s been so good, Hall of Fame player, to deal with injuries. It’s never easy for any player, getting older. But he’s mentally tough.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the four-time NBA champion responds to his late-game benching, and whether it lights a fire underneath him heading into the stretch run of the season.
