1 Interesting Statistic Shows Why the Golden State Warriors Decided to Let Klay Thompson Walk

While it will be weird for the entire Warriors fanbase to see the Dubs play without Thompson next season, one interesting statistic explains why moving away from their long-time sharpshooter is a better idea than what others may realize.

Klay Thompson performed poorly compared to younger Golden State Warriors players

RAPTOR has become one of the most recent measures in assessing a player’s effectiveness on the court. The measure was introduced by journalist Neil Pane and calculates the points a players add or take away whenever he’s on the floor for a certain team.

According to the RAPTOR metric, Thompson hasn’t been performing as well as he should have compared to other contributors on the Golden State Warriors’ roster.

Per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Will Simonds:

Thompson’s rating was plus-0.2, labeling him as essentially a league-average player in 2023-24. Though his plus-1.4 offensive RAPTOR trailed only Steph Curry on the Warriors, Thompson scored a dismal minus-1.2 on the defensive end to mostly cancel it out.

For some context, Thompson’s highest RAPTOR rating of his career came back in 2014-15, when he was a plus-4.7 during the Warriors’ NBA title run that season. But since his consecutive injuries in 2019 and 2021, the now-34-year-old guard has seen his value deteriorate in the eyes of the model.

There’s still no question that Klay will be able to make a positive impact in the NBA. The four-time NBA champion averaged 17.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists last season while shooting 43.2% on the floor and 38.7% from deep.

However, such numbers are low for a key member of a team’s core, and the Warriors’ decision to move on from him was sensible in the context of their pursuit of a fifth NBA championship in the Stephen Curry era.

Fans can only hope that sacrificing Klay will result in a fifth ring next season.