Kerr made some sensitive coaching decisions last season that, in retrospect, played a part in nudging Thompson out the door. In Kerr’s exit interview, he mentioned the desire to bring Thompson off the bench again (he won his starting job back by the end of the season) and the need to play him less in general, a soundbite that wouldn’t have helped in any theoretical negotiations with a player most proud of his durability and availability (a team-high 77 games at nearly 30 minutes per night last season) at this advanced stage of his career.
But the substantial relationship fracturing that led to this split points the microscope at upper management. Controlling owner Joe Lacob led a front-office effort to take a cold, mostly uncommunicative approach to Thompson’s next contract in his three summers of extension eligibility, team sources said, which isn’t separate from their norm. Lacob has done similar in the past with Curry, Kerr, Bob Myers, Andre Iguodala and Green, using dwindling time as a weapon but ultimately paying up (he put a substantial offer on the table for Myers) after a staring contest.
But Iguodala’s (in 2017) and Green’s (in 2023) are the two parallel situations that have popped up most in conversation about the split with Thompson that blindsided some Warriors’ executives in recent weeks. Iguodala and Green, both sharp and versed in the corporate world, used leverage to exact a better deal from the Warriors. Iguodala took his decision deep into free agency.
Thompson operates on his own wavelength. The Warriors’ decision-makers were warned that a drawn-out negotiation into July during this free-agent cycle wouldn’t be met the same way. He wasn’t trying to leverage his way back until the bitter end. After a bumpy end to a grumpy year, there was a realistic chance he went searching for a fresh start and more happiness elsewhere, regardless of how rapidly and warmly the Warriors prioritized him.
But his decision, as one source put it, became
easy when the Warriors kicked him down the summer pecking order. They paid a record luxury-tax bill last season and didn’t make the playoffs, a cost-versus-benefit that is untenable. So Joe Lacob, Mike Dunleavy, Kirk Lacob and their front office set off this offseason to explore big-picture moves that could vault them into contention and salary-slicing moves that were more reasonable.
There was little communication between Thompson, the Warriors and Thompson’s agent, Greg Lawrence, and ultimately no offer in this cycle. Warriors sources maintained a plan to eventually make a competitive offer in relation to his market once other business was settled. But they never had the chance. Many league sources said Thompson’s decision to depart was unofficially made weeks ago.
Warriors sources will mention the two-year, $48 million offer put on Thompson’s desk back in the preseason, especially considering he is heading to the Dallas Mavericks on a lower per-year three-year and $50 million deal, as an example of their dollars-and-cents intent to keep him around longer term. But the two sides have differing versions of the firmness of the offer and, again, the true desire of the franchise’s lead decision-makers in valuing him as a can’t-lose member of the core, only becoming more complicated when Myers (the ultimate communicator) ceded his high-ranking position in June 2023.
An extension didn’t get done. It bled into the season. Thompson, who led the
NBA in made 3s two years prior as the Warriors made the second round, saw a dip in his production. He still made the fourth-most 3s in the NBA, but went from 41.2 percent to 38.7 percent, slowed more defensively and saw a younger crop of Warriors (Podziemski,
Moses Moody) begin to bump into his current and future playing time.
The real origin story of their split goes back to 2019. Thompson, at the absolute peak of his prime, tore his ACL on a Game 6 NBA Finals dunk attempt during one of the signature nights of his career. He had 30 points after he hobbled up to the free throw and buried both. Had he not fallen, those within the Warriors believe that series was going back to a Game 7 in Toronto and Thompson was destined for some sensational seasons through his mid-prime.
The Warriors rewarded him that summer with a five-year max deal, knowing he’d miss the following season. Thompson went without a player option on the end of it, a minor detail that now looms larger, considering he could’ve entered the market with Green the previous summer. Some of this is about timing. Despite becoming extension eligible right after the 2022 title like his three teammates, had Thompson been as close as
Jordan Poole or
Andrew Wiggins or Green to free agency, he’d likely still be around.
After Thompson went 0 of 10 in an elimination Play-In loss in Sacramento in April — his final game in a Warriors uniform — Green, when asked about Thompson’s future,
mentioned that the Warriors’ leadership always takes care of its own.
“They did right by me,” Green said. “They’ve done right by Steph. They’ve done right by all of us. Klay tore his ACL and they gave him $160 million dollars.”
At a tense exit interview a few days later, Thompson — not directly at Green’s comment, but the prevailing theory that he owes the Warriors anything for the previous contract — bit back.
“Oh, man,” Thompson said. “Well, 2019, could you imagine if they didn’t pay me after I got hurt? That would have been really bad. Like, ‘Oh, you went to five straight finals, you blew your knee out, yeah, sorry.’ That was very nice of them.”
The Warriors let Thompson rehab his ACL mostly away from the facility during the 2019-20 season. Curry missed almost the entire season with a hand injury. Green missed part of it. They went an NBA-worst 15-50, but felt geared up for another run the following season.
That’s when one of the most consequential days in this run struck. On the same night the Warriors drafted James Wiseman second, Thompson ruptured his Achilles playing pickup basketball in Los Angeles, away from the team’s care and, he’d later admit, with too much weight.
“It might’ve been costly,” Thompson
said in a 2021 interview with The Athletic. “I don’t know. I try not to think about it too much. But it just, uh, it’s something I learned from. I’m not in my early 20s anymore.”
Thompson was in the facility and far more committed to head medical decision-maker Rick Celebrini’s plan the second time around. But Thompson ended up missing 941 days and two-and-a-half seasons of his mid-prime, losing an intangible amount of his burst in the process. There were many thorny rehab and post-return interactions as Thompson struggled to fully grasp the best seasons of his basketball career getting ripped away. He did become more temperamental on a daily basis, team sources said.
But Thompson also worked diligently to reclaim every ounce of his former self and then served as a vital member of the 2022 championship run, averaging a team-high 36 minutes, appearing in all 22 playoff games and scoring 19 points per night. He hit eight 3s in closeout games over the
Memphis Grizzlies and Mavericks to help secure the team’s sixth Western Conference title in his tenure. Then Thompson played 69 and 77 games and made 301 and 268 3s the next two seasons, respectively, his 12th and 13th in the league, giving him a strong belief that he has a whole lot more great basketball left and should be valued accordingly.
“I try every year I give my best effort,” Thompson said at his exit interview. “And the ownership group has been great. I have nothing but positive things to say about them. They treat us with great respect and do all the little things for us to do our jobs at the highest level … (But the future), it’s up to them.
“At the end of the day, whatever happens, it’s all gravy. It’s been such a freaking special run.”
two timeline ready to active it's their time
.
www.nytimes.com
