Leveraging the Golden State Warriors talent with Klay Thompson will be tough

Leveraging the talents between Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson and two-time MVP Stephen Curry is not going to be easy for Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.

While the splash brothers proved they could play alongside another talented superstar when forward Kevin Durant joined the team for three seasons, there isn’t a player in the world that has Durant’s skill set coupled with his height and length.

The Golden State Warriors are set to return five-time All-Star shooting guard Klay Thompson on Sunday. Making the most of all their talent won’t be easy.

This is going to be a completely different challenge for the championship-winning coach. Poole has made it difficult for Kerr.

While everyone knew Thompson was going to start upon his return, no one knew that it would be for the team’s third-leading scorer. Poole has been terrific this season, and it will justify a good amount of minutes moving forward.

After trading for D’Angelo Russell back in 2019, it seemed the Warriors were going to test the three star backcourt players’ plan. However, that didn’t last long as Russell was somewhat quickly flipped for Andrew Wiggins.

Now, they have no option but to see how they can have three stars co-exist in their backcourt. Poole has erupted this season, averaging 17.5 points per game. He also solved his biggest issue, hitting 44.5% of his attempts from the field.

Of the nine duos of players that have shared the court for over 500 minutes this season, Poole and Curry rank at the top in terms of net rating, above even Curry and Draymond Green. The two guards have a 14.1 net rating when sharing the court.

Adding Thompson is not going to be as simple as it seems. The year prior to Kevin Durant’s addition, the Warriors’ main small-ball lineup has three forwards, including Thompson as a guard. It wasn’t three guards.

While it seems like a small fix, figuring out the dynamics and if a Curry-Poole-Thompson-Green-Wiggins lineup can work is a completely different story. Those five may struggle to defend bigger centers like Deandre Ayton and Rudy Gobert.

If they can’t, then the trio may not be able to share the court often. That’s going to be something Kerr must quickly figure out and then work to get the most out of his three star guards without that factor.

Nonetheless, it seems impossible for Poole’s minutes to sharply decline, if at all. He’s been a staple of this team, and while it will be an experimenting process, it will be one that fans should undoubtedly believe Kerr will figure out.