RADIO
The Golden State Warriors' dynastic run is one of the more memorable eras in the history of the NBA. Aside from the golden reason for their success, Stephen Curry, of course, Klay Thompson also played a pivotal part in Golden State's four championships spanning from 2015 to 2022.
I think it's time we address the elephant in the room: Klay Thompson and, to a lesser extent, Andrew Wiggins are no longer trustworthy regarding betting the over or banking on anything fantasy basketball-related.
And an aging Chris Paul has joined the mix this season but has failed to make a big difference on offense or defense. Draymond Green is on the decline, and the Warriors fans have very few young players other than Jonathan Kuminga to get excited about. At 8-9, the Dubs are down, but not totally out. But they certainly don't look like contenders this year with these versions of Thompson and Wiggins on the floor. Let's take a closer look at just what's happened to their second and third leading scorers from years prior.
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Is Klay Thompson Cooked?
Thompson's elite play has disappeared so severely that highly-regarded NBA executive Bob Meyers jumped out the proverbial window before having to tell Twitter's favorite Warrior, "You aren't good enough anymore," leaving the former general manager in a rock between a hard place. Meyers knew the inevitable, which explains why he took an ESPN job instead of building the next era of Golden State basketball. Like my findings on social media, Meyers also probably knows the annoyance of the Thompson hive.
Thompson is no longer a viable option in fantasy basketball or betting the over on any prop bets. A slight drop wouldn't make the news for a guy who torched the league for eight consecutive seasons on 40+ percent from the three-point line. However, Thomspon's career-low 37 percent from distance and detrimental 15 points invoke images of a veteran who's endured too many injuries and is hobbling to the finishing line.
It took fourteen performances for Thompson to record a single 20-point game. In today's NBA, scoring 20 points doesn't leave the impression as years prior, which paints a troubling picture for the five-time All-Star, as he's constipated from scoring at such a rate.
Why is Klay Thompson taking these type of shots bropic.twitter.com/ZilUZkrkrX
— Nova (@Ventasion2) November 19, 2023
To further illustrate Thomspon's unfortunate fall from grace, let's take a look at a list of players who scored 20 points multiple times in the same stretch: Eric Gordon (twice), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (twice), OG Anunoby, Malik Beasley (twice), Gordon Hayward (twice), Derrick Jones Jr. (once), Matt Ryan (once), Dario Saric (once), Ivica Zubac (once), Lonnie Walker IV (once), Taurean Prince (once), Jusuf Nurkic (once), Reggie Jackson (once), and you get the point.
While Thompson indicated some worth in fantasy with a recent uptick in shooting, he's still under par. The bar is so low for the four-time champion that Prize Picks dropped his over/under line for points to 14.5; it originally was placed at a respectful 19.5 at the beginning of the season.
With the descended points scored prop, perhaps conversions will equal out for inquiring bettors of Thomspon's services. However, ruined by spoiled expectations, every Thompson prop will meet with the slant eye of any aware bettor. The bottom line is that Thompson used to be reliable; now he's a wildcard.
For fantasy basketball purposes, Klay ranks currently outside the top 150 (174) as he's shooting only 40% from the floor and has a career-high 1.9 turnovers despite playing just 29 minutes a night. His steals and blocks, though they were never all that plentiful, have virtually dried up as he's averaging just 0.9 combined this season. If you took the name away from the stat line, you are talking about a player who would be bouncing on and off waivers for the first month as players who score 15 a night with almost no peripheral stats just aren't all that useful.
Andrew Wiggins Returned to Earth
If you think Thompson is having a bad year, consider Andrew Wiggin's free-fall-to-earth 2023-2024 campaign after experiencing a personal issue that caused the 2022 NBA champion to miss 45 games. Perhaps the championship campaign was only a fluke. But even so, such a dip in production is hard to explain for a player in his physical prime. Never the shooter of Thompson's caliber, Wiggins found other ways to score, including getting to the basket and earning free throws.
Unfortunately, Wiggins can't finish at the charity stripe, which indicates his career-low 56 percent mark. Whether he recovers or not from a poor start is only something time will tell, but such a lowly number causes concern. Aside from the "easy" points, Wiggins has since regressed to the three-point shooting of his Minnesota Timberwolves tenure, but even worse.
On three attempts per contest, Wiggins converts an abysmal 25 percent from distance, another career-low for the once-perceived rejuvenated wing. Wiggins is a below-average shooter regarding true shooting percentage. Sitting at a miserable 47 percent in the aforementioned category, a whopping 10 percent difference from the league average, avenues of production have seemingly dried up from a once prosperous stream. Ultimately, 11 points per game isn't a mark for a dependable fantasy player.
Wiggins became a consistent producer of defense for the Warriors during their 2022 championship season, grabbing 3.3 defensive rebounds and a steal per contest. Now, with the Warriors seemingly out of championship contention, Wiggins has regressed to a defensive non-factor from a fantasy standpoint in light of his six steals in 17 games, which averages 0.4 steals, another career-low production mark.
With no other places to expect production, as Wiggins was never an adequate passer, operating from a strong sense of faith is the only reason to continue trotting out Wiggins in any fantasy activity. You'd see more of a return from donating to your favorite charity than placing any prop bet on the below-average wing.
Players rostered in over 50% of Yahoo leagues who are arguably not-roster players:
Lu Dort
Isaiah Stewart
Tre Jones
Bennedict Mathurin
Jaden McDaniels
Andrew Wiggins
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Kelly Oubre— Adam King (@Adamking91) November 20, 2023
And while he is still around 70% rostered in Yahoo leagues, Wiggins is starting to hit the waiver wire more often recently. Which is honestly where he belongs. Without some major improvements in his scoring, he's very unlikely to be a guy you can roster in fantasy basketball this season.
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