Golden State Warriors currently has its own two-week minicamp. After being eliminated from the NBA bubble, the Warriors are taking this camp to stay in the shape of players. Although Stephen Curry and Dremond Green are missing, Clay Thompson is present at this voluntary training camp.
After being injured during the 2019 NBA Finals, Clay has not played an official game since. But now during practice it is slowly taking shape. In an interview with Forbes, VP of the Warriors Kirk Lakob talked about how Thompson has already blown away the younger players.
He said “I think some of the younger players also told me this – they had no idea how good Clay was. And I answered people, ‘I don’t think you people understand. As such, this is not even clay yet. This Clay is playing for the first time in a year. ‘
Will Clay Thompson return to his best for the Warriors?
During the 2019-20 season, Jordan Pool was one of the youngest players to do the most in the absence of Curry and Thompson. After replacing him in the regular season, the 21-year-old is now excited to play him live.
“(Pool) was really excited to see Clay out there because he was finally seen face to face, he got to see all the things,” Lakob said. “And that’s one of the examples I gave where the players were like, ‘Wow, Clay is even better than I thought in person.’
“The only way they saw it was to stop and be able to square themselves, and to release it every time, to finish your shot no matter how insane it looks.”
Youngsters have a lot to learn from Thompson, the best shooter of all time. Its catch and shoot ability and -f-b movement is second to none. Throughout the camp, coach Steve Care will hope that Clay can impart this knowledge to younger players.
As they go into the next season, the big rears don’t have a lot of cap space to bring in big names. So they rely on these youngsters to move forward as solid role players. Jordan Poole, Damien Lee and Eric Paschel are some of those who have already shown promise. After their star return from injury, it will once again be a title-contesting season for the Warriors.
