Jonathan Kuminga couldn’t quite believe it. The 22-year-old was left slack-jawed and speechless Wednesday night upon learning the Golden State Warriors would’ve set a franchise record for made threes in their 122-112 win over the Sacramento Kings if the game had been played during the regular season.
Can you really blame him? Not only were the new-look Dubs coming off a putrid performance from beyond the arc in their exhibition opener, but they’re still adjusting to life without a franchise icon who has a legitimate case as the second best shooter ever.
Kuminga, of course, enjoyed a front row seat for Klay Thompson’s shot-making exploits over the first three years of his career. An easy assumption coming into 2024-25 is that Golden State would rely less on the long ball now that Stephen Curry’s Splash Brother plays for the Dallas Mavericks. A concerted and extended effort to deploy Kuminga, a developing long-range shooter, at small forward alongside two bigs during preseason seemingly supports that notion, too.
But Steve Kerr has repeatedly stressed he wants Golden State to launch even more triples this season, and Kuminga certainly looked comfortable spotting up from deep on Wednesday while shooting 4-of-7 on threes, none of which came from the corner.
Significant for the Warriors as major shooting strides would be from Kuminga, he’s not one of the players specifically tasked with replacing Thompson in the lineup. That onus falls to De’Anthony Melton and Buddy Hield, among others, both of whom flamed nets against the Kings while utilizing some of the same actions and concepts Thompson did with the Dubs for over a decade.
Warriors’ Buddy Hield, De’Anthony Melton did best Klay Thompson impression vs. Kings
Golden State didn’t add a plug-and-play replacement for Thompson over the summer. As much as he’s declined defensively since suffering those devastating back-to-back leg injuries a few years ago, Thompson still holds value on that end due to his positional size, strength and experience. Every team in the NBA wants a 6’7 sharpshooter who isn’t an abject negative defensively. With Thompson in Dallas, the Dubs don’t have one anymore.
From purely a shooting perspective, though, Hield is close to Thompson’s modern-day equal—an imminent and flammable threat from beyond the arc who confidently lets fly off movement and off-platform, striking constant fear in the heart of defenses.
How many times did Thompson create just a sliver of space for Curry to shoot with small-small ball screens? Hield helped bail Golden State out of what would’ve been a wasted possession late in the first quarter on Wednesday, setting a random ghost screen for Melton late in the shot clock. Look how much extra room just Hield’s presence creates for Melton as Malik Monk is wary of him quickly popping behind the arc for an open triple.
Wide pindowns are a staple of pretty much every NBA offense. Unfortunately for most of the league, there are only so many players who boast the pristine footwork, quick release and mental processing speed to exploit defenders cheating under off-ball screens.
Hield, like Thompson, will almost always make defenses pay in that scenario.
Hield is definitely the Dubs’ closest working facsimile to Thompson, but he’s hardly the only one picking up the four-time champion’s slack from deep. Melton is fresh following a season mostly marred by a back injury, poised to blow his career-high of 5.6 three-point attempts per game out of the water.
“It’d be hard for us to win a lot of games unless we shoot high-volume threes,” Kerr said after the game, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “What I like about this team is that even though we’ve lost Klay, we have more shooting depth. We have, I think, more guys who can step in from one night to the next and make threes. It’ll be a big part of our team for sure.”
Golden State, believe it or not, can run successful split actions without either Splash Brother. Melton had cashed three triples by the time both De’Aaron Fox and Keon Ellis followed him on this late first-half possession, freeing Hield for one of the easiest looks he’ll get before the regular season tips off in a couple weeks.
The Warriors aren’t content to simply run it back with a different cast of characters in 2024-25, though. Losing Thompson isn’t this team’s only change offensively; so is its overall means of attack.
Thompson worked off hundreds if not thousands of flare screens during his storied tenure with the Dubs. Melton does just that in the clip below, but from a set play favored for years by new Warriors assistant and longtime Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts as opposed to the general flow of Golden State’s read-and-react offense.
Melton catches with a clear advantage after Kevon Looney’s flare, attacking the switch off an over-aggressive close-out. He also knows that Hield had just received an exit screen from Kyle Anderson on the other side of the floor, sparking confusion that leaves the Dubs’ new best non-Curry shooter wide open on the wing as the ball creases the paint.
Splash.
Preseason games are mostly for public fodder. What happens behind closed doors in practices, shootarounds and film sessions matter just as much to teams as exhibition play itself. The Dubs definitely can’t count on approaching or surpassing the franchise record for made threes on a nightly basis come the regular season.
Still, Golden State’s historic hot hand on Wednesday revealed more than this revamped roster’s ability to replicate Thompson’s long-range volume. With players like Hield and Melton in the fold, the Warriors can use the same plays and a similar—if more structured and intentional—overall offensive approach to generate threes that they did while winning four titles with Thompson wearing blue and gold.
