Blue Man Hoop
Fansided

Golden State Warriors: Why Jason Thompson is a Better Fit than David West

By Greg Chin

facebooktwitterreddit

Earlier this week, our co-editor Eric He and I thought it would be a fun exercise to debate who of Jason Thompson and David West was a better fit for the Golden State Warriors. After all, the Warriors did make an attempt to sign West, who was a free agent, before he decided to sign with the San Antonio Spurs for the veteran’s minimum. The Warriors subsequently picked up Thompson in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, sending Gerald Wallace (who was acquired in the David Lee trade) over.

More from Warriors News

In case you missed Eric’s argument on why West is a better fit, click here.

On paper, West and Lee are nearly carbon copies of one another. They play a similar style as well – both thrive in the midrange and their rebounding numbers are a surprise, given their lack of athleticism. Both are average team defenders, but tend to suffer if they are targeted as part of the opponent’s offense.

Lee’s lack of athleticism and poor individual defense was a large reason why he didn’t receive a lot of playing time last season. Coach Steve Kerr preferred a mobile power forward, especially one that could handle the switch-heavy style of defense that the Warriors popularized. Lee’s lack of foot speed made him a liability on defense, especially when matched up against quicker wing players on the switch.

The same could be said for West – under the Warriors’ switch-defense, West is as big of a defensive liability as Lee is. However, if you replace West/Lee with Jason Thompson, things change for the better.

Apr 8, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Sacramento Kings forward Jason Thompson (34) dunks the ball during the first quarter against the Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports

At 6’11”, Thompson gives coach Kerr the sort of flexibility that Lee or West can’t – if Kerr chooses to do so, he could play Thompson as a center in small-ball lineups without sacrificing defense or rebounding. Thompson averaged 0.7 blocks per game last season for a poor Sacramento Kings’ defense. His 2.3 block percentage was third in the Kings (once you remove Sim Bhullar and Quincy Miller’s stats for small sample size issues). Kerr chose to play Lee at center sparingly last season, largely due to the fact that he isn’t a rim protector. Now, with Thompson, Kerr has an athletic center who can block shots and run the floor – something that they lack (you could make the argument for Festus Ezeli, but Thompson is more agile than Festus).

But on offense, Thompson doesn’t bring much to the Warriors. He shot 38.1 percent from the midrange last season, and a whopping 64.2 percent of his shots came within 10 feet of the basket. Surprisingly enough, 25.7 percent of his field goal attempts came in the long-2 region, where he shot 37.3 percent – an above average rate. This could be attributed to the stagnant Kings’ offense, which forced him to shoot more long-2s than preferred, but his 37.3 percent accuracy from that range puts him above other Warriors’ bigs like Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut, Ezeli and Lee.

Thompson’s lack of a mid-range jumper is worrisome, but perhaps with better spacing on the Warriors’ offense, we might see those numbers improve, especially since he’s quite an adept shooter in the long-2 zone.

In short, replacing West for Lee is a like-for-like replacement that will result in the same problems that we saw last season. West is a poor individual defender with no foot speed and doesn’t fit well with the Warriors’ defense – does that sound familiar? On the other hand, Thompson gives the Warriors the option of playing him as their small-ball center – a more mobile option than Festus Ezeli.

We know what West’s ceiling is, and his best days are behind him. As for Thompson, he is yet to play for an above .500 team, and there is reason to believe that he could develop into a player with some nice midrange touch. Perhaps with a better team around him, we’ll finally see Thompson’s true value.

More from Blue Man Hoop

Home/Warriors News