Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson remains highly motivated to win a fifth championship and to be named to his sixth All-Star game, per Howard Beck of Sports Illustrated. Thompson has been employing a very specific motivational keepsake to keep him inspired.
According to Beck, the 6’6″ swingman uses a San Francisco Chronicle newspaper clip taped above his locker, listing the only 26 players in league history to have more championship rings than him, to galvanize his efforts.
Thompson, in his first full season back with Golden State following injuries to his Achilles and ACL, has been taking a more relaxed approach to his career going forward.
“I’m way more Zen,” Thompson told Beck of his approach this year. “I’m just appreciative of playing early in the season and being healthy and competing and feeling great. Not having a fear of injury. I mean, we want our record to be as best as it can be, but that can change. … You could change that circumstance. When I was hurt, you couldn’t change a lot of things. So being able to actually do something about it—I got a whole new mindset of what I value and what not to care about.”
There’s more out of Golden State:
- Warriors head coach Steve Kerr acknowledged that the 2022 champs are struggling following a brutal 143-113 defeat at the hands of the Nets on Wednesday, albeit without three starters, writes Kendra Andrews of ESPN. Golden State went 1-5 on its recent road trip. “You are what your record says you are,” Kerr said. “It was a bad road trip. We are 15-18, so we’re a below-.500 team, and we’ve got to find a way to reverse that.”
- The Warriors grappled with mental health issues throughout their loss-heavy road trip, writes Andrews in a separate piece. “Right now, I think we are very fragile,” starting power forward Draymond Green remarked following a Friday practice. “You start going through these things and then you start believing them. Once you start believing them, it becomes who you are. The only way to break them is by being mentally tough.”
- Though the Warriors do not seem to have recaptured their championship-winning magic just yet, there are reasons to believe the second half of the club’s 2022/23 season will be an improvement over the first, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “We understand what we need to do,” Green told Slater. “We also understand the circumstances. This won’t be the position we’re in for a long time, but it’s where we are right now. We’ve been a very good team at home. There will be a comfort for the guys. That’ll be helpful. Got to build momentum.” Kerr pointed to a miserable 0-5 road trip early in the season (Oct. 29 through Nov. 4) as the first sign of trouble this fall: “The whole trip was kind of a mess. We were trying new rotations, new guys. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, we screwed up in those five road games.’ You have to analyze what was happening. We weren’t where we needed to be. I felt like we were behind. We’ve been swimming upstream since. … If we’re 6-4 instead of 3-7, there’s a little bit more a sense of calm.”
If they make the playin they have a shot we all know that. Moody Kuminga and Wiseman all need to step up.
They are doing it. You just have to be patient.
Kuminga has. Moody is too weak to play meaningful minutes and wiseman has the basketball iq of a washboard and is Kandy man aka Michael Olowokandi soft
What makes you a basketball genius?
if Curry does not return before ASG, GSW may go full tank also …
The all star game is 2 months away. Curry is out 2 more weeks. Why would they want to tank? Doesn’t make any sense.
Remember how you got Wiseman ? Shutting down Curry after a wrist injury, GSW had no momentum, no vibe like nowadays… GSW is 5 games from NBA bottom 4, Next draft is the last great one for the next few years… So why not ? GM & ownership want to developp and build for future, the Splash Bros are physically & mentally under pressure for a back to back… Looks like Curry is taking a Xmas break for a PO push but if anything happens to him it’s over, shutdown again.
“Next draft is the last great one for the next few years…”
How can you confidently assert that? You’re essentially banking on the accurate assessment of current high schoolers, which is a sketchy projection to say the least
That is a hot take from the Sam Vecennie, Leroux, Hollinger & Duncan podcasts…
You get your hot takes from podcasts? What a joke, especially Hollinger. Memphis is so glad they got rid of him.
Umm…What? The Warriors didn’t shut Curry down. He broke his wrist and the league suspended play.
Common Curry was supposed to come back in march when the team was already in tanking mode …
So, if I understand what you are saying, Klay Thompson’s ruptured Achilles was all a part the Warriors plan to land Wiseman. That is a bit farfetched.
Go off the common curry charts to some Shukto curry. That stuff will change your recipe box forever and you won’t need employ a tank.
The #1 reason for optimism is that they’re just 6 games out of 1st and there’s 49 games left in the reg season. They’ve also played 5 more road games than home games including 5 road games in 7 nights with 2 B2Bs, and this last 6 road games in 9 nights with 2 B2Bs.
(The league sure does their best to keep the Warriors down)…
Only reason for optimism is Curry playing a MVP level season …
Try watching the Warriors. You are being clueless.
Waiting until Iggy’s return.
Most of the Warriors success this season has come because of Draymond Green. That’s not debatable.
Very debatable. Curry was putting up numbers similar to his unanimous MVP season and Wiggins is having a career year.
he said….its NOT debatable. may we have discussion amongst ourselves?
You can argue all you want. But when Draymond Green dropped out the starting line up to stabilize the 2nd unit, they won 8 out of 10 games. Draymond got the young guys understanding what they need to do.
Draymond has started in every game he’s played in this season, so your saying he “dropped out the starting line up” is false.
As is your claim that they won 8 of 10 games, their best stretch this season is 7 wins out of 10.
No, that does NOT happen all the time in the nba.
At some point, whether its later this season, this offseason, next season, or in 5 years, the Warriors (Steve Kerr) will admit that they never really recovered from that preseason suckerpunch heard ‘round the world.
What you won’t admit that Jordan Poole is not that good of player. He has plenty of time to prove himself.
The league has it in for the Warriors. This comment seems groundless to me. How would you describe the NBA’s effort to “keep the Warriors down”?
@ Meadowlark
Is there any other team in the league that was given a schedule of 5 road games in 5 different cities in 7 nights with 2 B2Bs and then a 6 road games in 9 nights with 2 B2B’s the next month?
Ridiculous.
The schedule for every team evens out over the season, 41 here, 41 there. Four teams started on 10-18, the W’s among them. Arguably that early start gives them more days off overall. Blaming the schedule for failures is silly, implying the Association has a conspiracy against one of it’s most powerful draws is paranoia.
Your statement is completely false. Every team having the same # of home and road games is irrelevant to how unbalanced scheduling can affect results.
It’s a lie to say every team was given 5 road games in 7 nights in 5 different cities.
Did any other team on Christmas getr called for 6 technicals and have a player ejected?
Paranoia my foot!
Abject paranoia as opposed to the garden variety paranoia. The very thought that the Association’s brain trust has it in for a marquee team is daffy. No one said “every team was given 5 road games in 7 nights in 5 different cities.” Without checking, I’ll assume you didn’t make that one up. And how in the world does, “… any other team on Christmas getr(sic) called for 6 technicals and have a player ejected?” have the slightest connection to … no! Wait! This is a conspiracy to get the W’s. The officials are in on it too! cuckoo .. cuckoo .. cuckoo
You can deny reality all you want. FYI, actual facts >> your opinion.
You said it evens out, which is BS, because the majority of teams didn’t have this type of scheduling. There’s no reason the league couldn’t have stretched those road trips by a day or more.
6 techs, 1 player ejected speaks for itself. If you watched the game you saw haow the officials calls were wrong, and half the techs were absurd.