Even when Klay Thompson isn't shooting the ball well, you need him on the floor as a spacing threat. That's the problem the Dallas Mavericks are dealing with right now, something the Golden State Warriors are arguably also going through themselves with Buddy Hield.
Thompson delivered another poor performance for the Mavericks in Monday's 110-102 loss to the Houston Rockets, with the Warrior legend once again restricted to just five points on 2-of-9 shooting from the floor and 1-of-8 from 3-point range.
Klay Thompson might be facing increased pressure on his starting role
The veteran sharpshooter has had slow starts previously, but even by those standards his numbers to start this season are staggeringly poor. He's now averaging a career-low 8.1 points in 20.2 minutes per game, while his 32.8% shooting from the floor ranks fifth-worst in the entire league for any player that's taken at least 60 shot attempts.
The Mavericks are 2-5 on the season and 14th in the Western Conference, with Thompson a -70 in his 138.5 minutes on the floor which ranks sixth-worst of any player in the league -- another former Warrior guard, Jordan Poole, is first on that list at -90.
Those are the sort of numbers that make it difficult to retain Thompson in the starting lineup, but ESPN's Tim Bontemps believes that Dallas may be forced to based upon their complete lack of shooting threats.
“So you have that problem. You have the sacred cow of Klay Thompson clearly needing to be in the starting lineup, which is not working and is a problem that they seemingly can't do anything about," Bontemps said on The Hoop Collective.You can't keep going forward with that, but I think the Mavs are probably in a position where they kind of have to.”
Golden State certainly dealt with plenty of periods where Thompson was cold and well below his best, but he'd usually breakout from that with an explosive performance or two that reiterated his stature as one of the greatest shooters of all-time. It also helped that Thompson was an elite defender prior to his two devastating leg injuries, making it much more palatable to allow him to work through his shooting struggles.
While the Mavericks are working through their problems with the 35-year-old, the Warriors face a similar situation with Hield who has also started the season poorly. The 32-year-old was the hero for Golden State at times during last season's playoff run, but is shooting just 28.1% from 3-point range through seven games.
The major difference is that Hield is now a bench player, and while the Warriors will still rely on him going forward as a shooting threat, there's not the same increased scrutiny on his role like Thompson now finds in Dallas.