Parsons recalls defending the Warriors’ Steph-Klay duo as a ‘nightmare’ originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
Hearing at least one retired NBA player tell it, many of the league’s players and coaches had reason to celebrate. Klay Thompson’s decision to leave Stephen Curry and the Warriors.
That’s because his job should be easier without the need to develop and implement game plans to defend the most spectacular offensive backcourt in NBA history.
“A nightmare,” Chandler Parsons told NBC Sports Bay Area during the recent American Century Championship golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
“It was exhausting,” Parsons added. “You have to jump on screens to try and defend them and deny them the ball. And then their conditioning is so good, never stopping, moving nonstop. Obviously if they can get a second of space [the shot is] rising and generally they are succeeding.
“Two devastating guys to protect.”
When Steve Kerr was hired as head coach in 2014-15, he installed an offense designed around player and ball movement. Thompson and Curry thrived in the system, routinely ranking among the league leaders in total miles per game.
After the Warriors finished 67-15 – then a franchise record – in Kerr’s first season, he finished second to the Atlanta Hawks’ Mike Budenholzer in Coach of the Year voting. Curry made his second consecutive trip to the NBA All-Star Team. Game and Thompson received the honor for the first time.
The creative synergy of the Kerr-Curry-Thompson trio made the attack the talk of the league. Parsons, an emerging star whose career ended in 2020 due to injuries suffered in a car accident, was among the admirers.
“It’s a great system, and Kerr is a great coach, but the system [was] Klay and Steph,” Parsons said. “If you put them in any franchise, they will have that system, they will have success when these guys are at their peak. They are so elite in what they do, such good shooters that they get so much attention when they give the other guys on the court much easier looks.
“So yeah, it’s a great system when you have arguably the two greatest shooters of all time.”
Kerr’s goal for next season is integrate three new veterans – Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De’Anthony Melton – in Golden State’s offensive system. Hield, often among the NBA leaders in miles per game, seems to fit in as perfectly as Thompson.
Parsons, who suffered career-ending injuries in the final season of a four-year, $94.4 million contract, understands the reasons behind Thompson’s decision to go elsewhere by becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer. summer.
“The Klay Thompson thing is weird, right? You just imagine him as a warrior,” Parsons said. “Do you imagine him, you know, working for the Warriors and being [with the franchise]which will probably still happen later.
“I understand. From a player’s point of view, you want to get paid. You want to take advantage of the opportunity. It’s strange to see him in a different shirt.”
Watching Thompson wear No. 31 with the Mavericks instead of No. 11 with the Warriors will require rubbing your eyes.
Parsons, 35, has evolved into a die-hard NBA watcher. He will have to adjust, just like the Warriors and the rest of the league.
