As the Golden State Warriors enter the 2025-26 NBA season, one of a number of questions regarding their roster lies in who will take on their starting shooting guard role.
Yet, shooting guard Klay Thompson, whose knock-down shooting and strong perimeter defense many fans might be missing right about now, has been ranked the 25th-best shooting guard in the league by Fadeaway World, further highlighting the fact that, as his career progresses, Thompson is no longer among the elite at his position.
Now, as Thompson attempts to play an integral part in this current, strange iteration of the Dallas Mavericks, the league must come to the realization that he is in the twilight of his career.
Klay Thompson is not longer among the elite at his position
Fadeaway World, in their pre-season positional rankings, has certainly had some interesting takes. Even in their shooting guard list alone, Amen Thompson of the Houston Rockets, who will be new to the position this year, is listed as the third-best in the league, and Ace Bailey, who has yet to play an NBA game, is ranked above players such as Collin Sexton and Gradey Dick.
Yet, with Thompson, who comes in as the final slot on the list at 25, they may have a serious point regarding his ongoing viability as a starter.
In his first year in Dallas, Thompson saw regressions in almost all of his numbers apart from his 3-point percentage, which stayed steady around 39%.
Nevertheless, Thompson has never quite been the same shooter since the injuries that caused him to miss two seasons between 2019 and 2021, and, as he approaches age 36 this season, it is likely that his defense will only continue to decline as well.
While Thompson certainly still presents a specialist shooting threat for the Mavericks, it's hard to imagine him being much more than that. Therefore, while it is a difficult pill to swallow, placing a dynamic defensive threat like Sexton or a burgeoning young scorer in Dick above Thompson may be a correct evaluation at this point in his career.
That being said, Dallas still has enough defense and additional scoring to cushion some of the deficiencies in Thompson's game. With both Anthony Davis and an incredibly switchable Cooper Flagg on the roster, they should be able to hide him just enough on defense, and, if Irving can return this season, he will not be relied upon to take on as much of a playmaking burden in the offense.
As it stands, however, Thompson is set to continue to regress this year, and Warriors fans have seen this coming since the end of his tenure in The Bay.