Steve Kerr Says He Wants Klay Thompson Back Next Season For The Warriors

HIGHLIGHTS

•  Klay Thompson went scoreless as the Golden State Warriors’ season came to an end at the hands of the Sacramento Kings.
•  Steve Kerr addressed Thompson’s future with the team, saying the Warriors desperately want him to return.
•  The potential end of a dynasty in Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Thompson with Golden State adds melancholy to Thompson’s poor outing.

The Golden State Warriors season is officially over after they were no match for the Sacramento Kings, 118-94, in the 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament. And Klay Thompson could not have chosen a worse time to have arguably the worst game of his NBA career.

In potentially his final game as a Warrior, Thompson laid a goose egg and missed all of his 10 attempts from the field, including six from beyond the arc in their 118-94 loss in the Play-In Tournament.

There has been a ton of uncertainty all season long about whether Thompson would stay in Golden State past this season. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr spoke about Thompson’s future with the team and explained what Thompson means to the team from a basketball standpoint and from the organization with what he has contributed to the franchise all these years.

“We need Klay back… He’s still got good years left… I know I speak for everybody in the organization, we want him back… What Klay has mean to this franchise and as good as he still is, we desperately want him back.” – Steve Kerr

Thompson’s Brutal Night From The Field

A microcosm of Thompson’s 2023-24 season

Thompson had a brutal night as he could not get anything going at all. Even his open looks from the field were not going down.

From the get-go, Warriors fans could probably have sensed it. It was going to be a long night for Klay Thompson after he bricked all of his five shots in the first half.

He just couldn’t turn it around after half-time and ended up missing all of his 10 attempts from the field as the Kings blew the game wide open in the second half. And Thompson was a huge reason for Golden State’s second half meltdown.

According to Kendra Andrews of ESPN, this is only the second time under Steve Kerr that the four-time NBA champion went scoreless in a game, and the other occurrence was when he got ejected just one minute and 43 seconds into a game.

All in all, this performance was a microcosm of Thompson’s 2023-24 season. He saw his shooting numbers take a dip, especially at the start, where he was shooting in the low 30 percent range from three throughout the first couple of months of the season.

Thompson did finish the year strong, averaging 21.8 points on 49.1 percent field goal shooting, including 41.6 percent from beyond the arc, in his last 10 games of the regular season. Unfortunately, he just could not carry the momentum from that final stretch into the playoffs and was unable to find the nylon in what was the Warriors’ most important game of the year.

Klay Thompson’s Impending Free Agency

Was this his last game in Golden State?

Thompson is an unrestricted free agent this offseason. He reportedly opted not to sign a two-year, $48 million extension from the Warriors before the campaign started. Unfortunately, things have not gone the way he may have imagined.

His play took hit a decline this season, as he experienced one of the worst shooting years of his career. At one point, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr even relegated him to the bench for the first time since his rookie year. With how his season trended, there has been speculation all year that his days in the Bay Area are numbered.

With Golden State’s season coming to an abrupt and disappointing end on Tuesday night, and the 34-year-old entering free agency, it is worth wondering if this is the last time NBA fans will see Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Thompson on the same floor together as teammates.

If so, this is a sad way to go for a legendary figure in this storied organization. Kerr certainly hopes that is not the case.