It’s all been widely reported: In 2014, the Golden State Warriors were in discussions to trade Klay Thompson for Kevin Love. It almost happened. Team advisor Jerry West convinced the front office not to go through with it.
Thompson developed into an All-Star and a key piece of arguably the best team ever.
West spoke about the trade-that-didn’t-happen with 95.7 The Game’s “Damon, Ratto and Kolsky” podcast last week.
“To me, the perfect player — and he wasn’t as far along in his career when this trade had been talked about — the perfect player for Steph (Curry) was Klay,” West said.
“He never seeks the spotlight. He just plays the game. And he has gotten better and better, and frankly, he’s one of the most underrated players in the league who gets not as much love as he should get.”
In hindsight, the idea of that trade looks ridiculous, but Love was averaging 26.1 points, 12.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 6.6 3-point attempts per game — and this was right before the 3-point revolution began in earnest.
His 6.6 attempts from beyond the arc was tied with Thompson and James Harden for fourth-most in the league, and was one of three power forwards to even average more than five per game.
With those metrics, it’s actually easy to see how the established star would have fit in compared to the third-year wing.
Some Warriors brass thought so, too.
“I think there were certain people that were of a different opinion (than me) because Kevin Love was an attractive player to have because of his ability to spread the court, his rebounding, his passing,” West said. “He’s a good player.”
It didn’t happen. The Warriors turned into a dynasty. Thompson was integral on both sides of the ball.
“The decision was made not to trade him, and you’ve got the best basketball backcourt in the game today in those two,” West said. “And also, an incredible complementary player to Steph in his own right — as good as Steph in another way, the totality of his game. He’s getting better, too.”
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