Klay Thompson Fantasy News and Statistics

The son of Mychal Thompson, the first overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft, Klay Thompson is already a better player than his father ever was. A sharpshooter on offense who also plays lock-down defense, Thompson has been a vital component of the Golden State Warriors juggernaut we’ve seen over the last three seasons.

Thompson grew up in an athletic family as both his dad and older brother played in the NBA. Also, his younger brother currently plays in MLB and his mom was a Division I volleyball player. Thompson was born in Los Angeles while his dad played for the Lakers, and the family then moved to Portland when Mychal retired. The Thompson family eventually moved back to Los Angeles in 2003 when Mychal became a radio analyst for the Lakers.

Despite his pedigree, Thompson wasn’t a five-star recruit coming out of high school and ended up signing with Washington State University, which has produced just one NBA All-Star.

The younger Thompson proved to be a far different player than his father, who stood 6-foot-10. Thompson played on the wing and was an efficient marksman who knocked down nearly 40 percent of his three-point attempts at Washington State. However, the talent around him was lacking, and the Cougars never made an NCAA appearance in Thompson’s three years at the school. He left college after his junior year and was taken with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.

The lack of success that Thompson experienced in college followed him to the NBA as he joined a franchise that had just one postseason appearance over the previous 17 seasons. Thompson began his rookie year as a reserve but was then promoted to starting shooting guard after the team traded away Monta Ellis. The Warriors again missed the playoffs, but Thompson was named to the All-Rookie team.

He remained as the starting shooting guard the following year and experienced his first NBA postseason action. The Warriors, under head coach Mark Jackson, started to add pieces to the backcourt of Thompson and Steph Curry as they drafted Draymond Green and signed Andre Iguodala. But it was the naming of Steve Kerr as head coach that really maximized the personnel on the team.

By the 2014-15 season, Kerr had built the entire Warriors offensive strategy around his backcourt, and Thompson reached historic levels. In a midseason win over the Sacramento Kings, Thompson set a record with 37 points in a single quarter on the way to a career-high of 52 points.

The Warriors ended that season with their first championship in 40 years while Thompson made his first All-Star game. The franchise followed that up by winning a record 73 games the next season, and although it came up short in its quest for a repeat, Thompson was again an All-Star.

In the summer of 2016, he collected a gold medal at the Olympics while the Warriors entered the 2016-17 season with revenge on their minds. They went on to win their second championship in three years, and Thompson made some more history along the way. In a game versus Indiana, he became the first player in NBA history to score 60 points in fewer than 30 minutes of play. He also became just the fourth Warrior to have a 60-point game, which is something not even Curry has done.

At 27 years old, Thompson is just entering his prime, which is a scary thought for Warriors detractors. Even with the addition of Kevin Durant before the 2016-17 season, Thompson increased his scoring average for a fifth straight year. Kerr believes that Thompson can still get even better, which is a big reason why the Warriors are prohibitive favorites to win the NBA championship in 2017-18.