Why Klay Thompson Should Never Be A Part of an All-NBA Team

Klay Thompson is viewed as one of the stars in today’s NBA, making his fame as a knockdown shooter from spots all over the floor.  Last year alone he ranked 53rd among players in Field Goal Percentage shooting .468 %, which is way better than it looks considering that 13 of the top 15 in FG% are Centers.  He also shot .414 % from the three point line ranking him 12th among players in the league.  

Is there more to his game though? I’m here to tell you there is not much else in his repertoire offensively. As a Shooting Guard with players like Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green on his team he averaged only 2.1 APG.  How can a player who averages 2.1 APG be considered a top 6 guard in the entire NBA?  He simply cannot. When looking at DeMar DeRozan and John Wall, two players who made the All-NBA 3rd Team, you will find that their assist numbers per game stand at 3.9 and 10.7.   I find it hard to believe that with the talent on his team he is unable to become a decent playmaker for his teammates and at least pick up 4 or 5 APG.   Now I know what you may be thinking, well, if he can get around 6 or 7 rebounds per game he has a case. Well unfortunately he doesn’t do that either.  Klay Thompson at 6’7” only pulls in 3.7 boards, which is terrible for a guy with his kind of frame.  He should be taking advantage of being 6’7” and playing shooting guard because most players at his position are not his size. Again, when viewing the guys above him, Wall averaged 4.2 RPG at 6’4” and DeRozan averaged 5.2 RPG at 6’7”.  Both ranking higher than Thompson and showing that it is ridiculous to think that Klay belongs on an All-NBA team.

Another point to be made when trying to prove if he’s worthy for even All-NBA is does he play an all-around game with the defensive tools necessary to help give him a push.  Sorry, but, no, he doesn’t have that either.  In both steals per game and blocks per game he reads sub 1.0 numbers with 0.8 SPG and 0.5 BPG which in no way helps his cause.  When you stack up Klay defensively against Wall and DeRozan defensive numbers read: Wall 2.0 SPG 0.6, DeRozan 1.1 SPG 0.2 BPG.  The numbers look a lot better than what Thompson has been doing for his club.  I understand that not everything that has to do with defense is read through the stat sheet BUT, Thompson fails to help his teammates defensively by hardly crashing the boards and trying to constantly leak out for shots rather than stick around and help teammates.  He is a good defender, but largely overrated on that side of the court for the aforementioned reasons.

As good of a player that Thompson is, his stat line reads this when searched on ESPN:

22.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG 2.1 APG 0.8 SPG 0.5 BPG.  

Stacked up versus John Wall alone reads:

23.1 PPG 4.2 RPG 10.7 APG 2.0 SPG 0.6 BPG.

When comparing the stat lines Wall beats him in all categories obviously solidifying his spot on the team.  DeRozan also beats Thompson in PPG (27.3) RPG (5.2) APG (3.9) and SPG (1.1) showing clearly that he belongs on the 3rd Team as well.  

There are more guards than Wall and DeRozan who also out play Thompson and are honorable mentions for All-NBA such as Damian Lillard and Kemba Walker.  Thompson does nothing but shoot and needs to work on all around play before he can cry about why he did not make the All-NBA 3rd team or any team for that matter.  With the team he is on and the players around him, it is inexcusable for him not to become a better rebounder, playmaker, and defender and for those reasons Klay Thompson should NEVER be mentioned as an All-NBA Selection at this point.

Written By Nick Kazandjian