The simple but effective way Klay Thompson gets open off screens
Sometimes Klay Thompson doesn’t have to work much for his points. With Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green each being some of the best playmakers in the NBA, simply standing in the corner forces Thompson’s defender to make a tough decision. Either they choose to leave their teammates on an island against Curry, Durant and Green or they run the risk of a knockdown shooter getting an open look from the perimeter.
Thompson is much more than a spot-up shooter of course. Nobody is scoring a greater number of points off of screens this season and it makes up more of his offense (33.9 percent) than spot-ups (17.9 percent). For context, by ranking in the 66.5 percentile with 1.01 points per possession, Thompson is a more efficient shooter off of screens than Eric Gordon, Marvin Williams and Kyrie Irving are on spot-ups.
The beauty of Thompson in those situations is the Golden State Warriors don’t have to run anything particularly fancy to get him open. Not only does he have a height advantage over most backcourt defenders at 6-foot-6, he has an incredibly quick release that makes his shot almost impossible to block. He also isn’t afraid to shoot when defenders are within a couple of feet of him: Thompson has taken 94 3-pointers (a fifth of his total 3-point attempts) within 2-4 feet of a defender this season, and he’s made 35.1 percent of those opportunities.
That’s not far off DeMarre Carrol’s success rate on wide open 3-point attempts.
Read More: How James Harden baits defenders into fouling him on 3s
Put those together and Steve Kerr doesn’t have to do much to get the second best 3-point shooter in the world open looks from the perimeter. One of his favorite ways to do so is with a pin down — a screen involving a teammate facing the baseline as opposed to the sideline — out of their flow offense. It usually looks a little something like this:
There are basically two options for Thompson:
Continue curling. Had Garrett Temple followed him over the screen, Thompson wouldn’t have been a defender in front of him and could’ve continued on the same path for a 3-pointer at the top of the perimeter, a mid-range jump shot around the free throw line or a layup at the basket. Think of what Rip Hamilton used to do.
Pop to the wing. Because Temple went underneath Zaza Pachulia’s screen in an attempt to meet him on the other side, Thompson knew he could make his life difficult by positioning himself almost directly behind Pachulia. Temple’s only chance of contesting his shot was to navigate his way around Pachulia’s screen and immediately turn on the jets by changing direction on a dime.
It helps that Thompson’s footwork is as close to perfect as you’ll ever see when he’s operating off of screens. As you can see in the images below, he uses his right foot as a springboard to pop to the open space when he notices his defender going underneath the screen. It’s similar to a V-Cut.
Thompson then plants his left foot on the 3-point line before the ball reaches his hands.
Once Thompson receives the ball, he hops to square himself up to the basket.
And from there it’s easy pickings.
Those factors — being able to get his shot off out of basic sets with a quick form he can replicate every time he shoots — are what make Thompson the elite shooter he is. Here he does it again, this time against the Brooklyn Nets on the first possession of the game. Pay attention to how he uses the screen to get open, as well as his footwork.
Taking Thompson to the next level is he never stops moving. If he doesn’t receive the ball on the initial pin down, he’ll simply relocate to the other side of the court and run his defender off of another screen. It’s hard enough chasing him around one screen, so the second time often works like a charm.
Just watch how easily Thompson loses Corey Brewer on the following possession. He rejects the screen from Shaun Livingston at the top of the key in the hopes of catching the Houston Rockets off guard with a backdoor cut. He then slows down to set himself up perfectly for a screen from Kevon Looney on the baseline. And when Looney takes Brewer out of the picture, nobody on the Rockets is prepared to step up to prevent Thompson from shooting in the corner.
The Warriors also mess with teams by keeping every defender engaged. This possession against the Minnesota Timberwolves isn’t as crisp as the other examples, but there’s still enough movement to keep everyone honest. Looney looks like he’s going to set a screen on Curry, Durant keeps Andrew Wiggins attached to him by running the baseline and Green floats to the 3-point line after he sets the screen on Thompson. Had the Timberwolves worked harder to slow down Thompson, someone else would’ve benefited from it.
Thompson is basically a one-man team when it comes to operating off of screens. He’s attempted 330 shots in those situations this season, which is more than 21 teams including the Utah Jazz (278), Cleveland Cavaliers (277), Toronto Raptors (277) and San Antonio Spurs (237). In fact, the only teams to have taken 40 or more shots than Thompson off of screens are the Washington Wizards (400), Charlotte Hornets (402), Indiana Pacers (402) and Dallas Mavericks (505).
Next: Life after DeMarcus Cousins
The Warriors are unsurprisingly at the top of the leaderboard with 772 attempts and rank in the 96.6 percentile with 1.07 points per possession. Durant and Curry have both contributed to those numbers — they’ve combined for 318 attempts off of screens and average over 1.1 points per possession — but much of their success in that department is because of Thompson.