Klay Thompson will continue to wear Golden State Warriors colors in the upcoming 2023-24 NBA season. Beyond that is a bit of a mystery. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN recently revealed that Thompson and the Warriors front office are still not on the same page when it comes to a contract extension. The five-time NBA All-Star has a season left on the five-year, $189.9 million deal he signed with Golden State in 2019, which means it’s just high time for him and the Warriors to sit down and hammer out a new contract – except, it’s seemingly not trending in a direction that most Dubs fans prefer.
“I’m told that there has been absolutely no progress on a Klay Thompson extension in Golden State,” Wojnarowski of ESPN said. “They are both still apart on years and money, and there’s a very real possibility that Klay Thompson goes into free agency next summer without a deal.”
It would have been a much easier discussion on the negotiation table between the Warriors and Thompson’s side if he were much younger and if he had not suffered multiple serious injuries in recent years. Thompson will be turning 34 in February and it’s well-known that he went through a long and arduous process to return fully from both a torn ACL and Achilles tendon injuries.
However, Thompson can definitely still ball. In the 2022-23 campaign, he averaged 21.9 points and shot 41.2 percent from behind the arc. He also took a higher percentage of his shots from behind the arc than at any season of his career in the NBA during 2022-23 but still posted a 55.6 efG% and .576 TS%.
Numbers aside, Thompson is woven deeply into the fabric of Golden State basketball. Even if his play takes a sharp decline in the coming season, Warriors fans would still want to see him in Golden State uniform until he calls it quits from the league.
After already winning four rings with the Warriors, there is a very real chance that he decides to move somewhere else if he feels he can get one last big payday. He is surely aware that this is his final opportunity to get a contract, and the 2024 free agent class currently doesn’t have too many marquee names on it.
Jennie Francis