Steve Kerr Addresses Klay Thompson's Future With Warriors After Ugly Elimination Game
If Tuesday night marked Klay Thompson's final game in a Golden State Warriors jersey, it couldn't have ended much worse.
Thompson didn't score a single point in 32 minutes as the Warriors were eliminated from playoff contention, falling 118–94 to the rival Sacramento Kings in the NBA play-in tournament.
It was just the fifth time Thompson went scoreless in his career, and just the second since Steve Kerr took the reins as the Warriors coach in 2014, per ESPN's Kendra Andrews. Thompson's only other scoreless game under Kerr was when he was ejected 103 seconds into a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in November.
Thompson, set to hit free agency this summer at 34 years old, now enters an offseason of uncertainty. Did he play his final game in a Warriors jersey on Tuesday night?
"We need Klay back," coach Steve Kerr said after the loss. "I know he had a tough night tonight, but what he represents for us—the spacing—we're not a deep shooting team. We're a little top-heavy. Klay's presence means so much to the spacing of the floor, to the flow of the offense.
"He's still got good years left. We want him back. Obviously, there's business at hand, and that has to be addressed. ... What Klay has meant to this franchise, as good he still is, we desperately want him back."
Thompson has publicly stated multiple times that he'd like to remain with the Warriors for his entire career. The Warriors, as Kerr did again Tuesday, have said the same.
But the two sides couldn't agree to a contract extension before or during the 2023-24 campaign. While Golden State gave forward Draymond Green a four-year contract extension worth $100 million last June, reports swirled that the Warriors and Thompson haven't been on the same page in terms of years and money on his next deal.
In 77 games this season, Thompson scored 17.9 points per game—his lowest average since his third campaign in 2013-14—while shooting 38.7% from three-point range. Thompson shifted to a bench role in the Warriors' rotation in February and March before rejoining the starting five late in the year.
Thompson has put together quite a career in the Bay Area as a five-time All-Star and four-time NBA champion. He'll likely have a statue of himself erected outside Chase Center alongside teammates Green and Steph Curry one day.
Whether his scoreless outing against the Kings is the final outing of his Warriors career—or not—will be decided this summer.
