Golden State Warriors: Klay Thompson is attacking the rim at a surprising rate

Looking more and more like the Greek God Zeus, Klay Thompson controls both the thunder and the sky these days. He’s been attacking the rim and dunking more than ever this season.

Klay Thompson has been catch-and-shoot his entire basketball life. And he’s one of the best, probably the best ever when he’s hot. But, lately, he has been adding to his offensive arsenal.

With 25 games left of the regular season, Klay has dunked 19 times already. He’s cutting to the rim more than ever, and he seems more aggressive, not sitting back and waiting for the ball to hit his shooting pocket.

It’s not like Klay hasn’t dunked before, though! He has always done it here and there.

The thing that set him of this season was probably his career-high four dunks against the Denver Nuggets. As Steve Kerr said it: “He was more excited about his four dunks against Denver than his 14 threes against Chicago”.

Klay is still mainly a catch and shoot player – feeding from Draymond Green, Steph Curry and so on. But, he has seemed more intense lately, and the numbers are backing it up.

Klay regular season dunks:

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Season             2011/12                                     12

Season             2012/13                                     15

Season             2013/14                                     11

Season             2014/15                                     21

Season             2015/16                                     14

Season             2016/17                                     5

Season             2017/18                                     11

Season             2018/19                                     19   (57 games played – 25 to go)

If Klay keeps up his pace, he’s set to land 27 dunks this season. That’s improvement!

Of course, Klay also seems to take a higher amount of shots this season than in season’s past, but numbers are not through the roof so it justifies him shooting more.

Klay is not a new Giannis – but he is changing his game to match the Warriors’ personnel. While oftentimes it’s Curry attacking the glass at a high clip, this season it’s been Thompson doing it as well. Known for his ability to score without dribbling much, Thompson has also started to put the ball on the ground more than he has in year’s past.

This is not dunk-bonanza-showtime-Klay, but it’s refreshing watching him do his own kind of thing.