Klay Thompson (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Jerry West says Klay Thompson is one of NBA’s most underrated players.
The guard featured on the NBA logo highly praised Klay Thompson.
Hall of Fame guard Jerry West has won an NBA Championship (1972), a 14-time NBA All-Star (1961-74) selection, won a scoring title (1970) and once led the league in assists (1972). As an NBA executive, he has won eight NBA championships in past roles with the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors. As “The Logo” happens to know a thing or two about basketball on the NBA level, West went on to praise Thompson. A man who helped West win two titles before he left his front office job in Golden State.
During West’s time with the Warriors, rumors circulated the team wanted to trade Thompson for Kevin Love before the 2015 season. At the time, Love was a three-time NBA All-Star for the Minnesota Timberwolves while Thompson had yet to be an All-Star selection. While West did not handle trades, he insists the idea did not come from him.
“Kevin Love was an attractive player to have because of his ability to spread the court, his rebounding, his passing — he’s a good player,” West said on the Damon, Ratto and Kolsky podcast. “But to me, the perfect player — and he wasn’t as far along in his career when this trade had been talked about — the perfect player for Steph was Klay.”
Thompson’s personality was a rare asset too, West added.
“He never seeks the spotlight. He just plays the game. And he has gotten better and better, and frankly, he’s one of the most underrated players in the league who gets not as much love as he should get,” West said.
With the Warriors missing the playoffs this 2019-20 season, this will be the first time since 2014 where the Warriors didn’t make the NBA Finals. The Warriors won three championships out of those five consecutive NBA Finals appearances. When the Warriors were defeated by the Toronto Raptors in 2019, the squad lost both Kevin Durant and Thompson due to injury that NBA Finals series.
With changes in Golden State this past season and Thompson absent the entire 2019-20 season due to his torn ACL, the Warriors held the worse record in the Western Conference at 15-50. The Warriors and Timberwolves are the only teams in the Western Conference not invited to participate in the NBA restart.