Golden State Warriors: Forecasting Emerging Star Klay Thompson's NBA Future - Bleacher Report

When the Golden State Warriors selected Klay Thompson with the 11th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft, everyone knew what the team was doing.

They were adding insurance in case a day came when they traded Monta Ellis. Until that happened, they would at least have a very talented shooter to bring off the bench.

Thompson came off the bench for the Warriors right up until March 13th. Sure enough, that was the day the Warriors traded Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks, opening up a spot for Thompson to start.

So far, so good. Since the day Ellis was traded, Thompson is averaging nearly 18 points per game. For the season, he's shooting 44 percent from the field, including 43 percent from beyond the arc.

It's a small sample size, but what the Warriors have found out since Ellis was traded is that Thompson can handle a heavy workload night in and night out in the NBA. And just in case it wasn't obvious enough, the Warriors have found out that Thompson can shoot with the best of them.

So, now what? Where do Thompson and the Warriors go from here?

For the moment, there seems to be no question that Thompson will be the Warriors' starting shooting guard when they open the 2012-2013 season. He's the youngest and the best in-house option, and it helps that he's basically the organization's prized youngster. Look for the Warriors to market Thompson pretty heavily next season.

Scoring is not going to be a problem for Thompson. He's still plenty green, but he already ranks among the best pure shooters in the NBA. It's going to be scary for teams to go up against both him and Stephen Curry.

The downside is that shooting is pretty much the only thing Thompson brings to the table. He doesn't need to do much else on the offensive end of the floor, but he needs to get better defensively. Exactly how he's going to do that is a huge question mark.

Thompson has good NBA size, but he doesn't have great NBA athleticism. He doesn't move quickly enough to keep his man in front of him, and he got in way too much foul trouble in the games immediately after the Ellis trade.

If Mark Jackson is truly committed to making the Warriors an above-average defensive team, something they are not right now, he can't have Thompson be a defensive liability. It's on him to get betterâ€"plain and simple.

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But let's say Thompson is who he is as a defender. Maybe he won't be able to help the Warriors defensively, and they'll have to live with it.

The Warriors will live with it as long as Thompson is knocking down shots, but he'll have to do other things to help the team when he's out on the floor. They're not going to win many games if he's out there just to knock down open shots (that only works at Duke).

David Thorpe of Scouts Inc. (on ESPN.com) made what I think is a good suggestion for Thompson. He thinks Thompson should model himself after Mike Miller, a tremendous shooter who also rebounds and makes a lot of hustle plays. 

Thompson is not hopeless as a rebounder, but you can tell that he's just not used to throwing his body all over the place. He's never had to do. If he wants to maximize his value as an NBA player, he'll have to accept that there's more to life than knocking down shots.

If Thompson does become an all-around player, I can see him making an All-Star team or two in the future, though probably not as a starter. He's capable of scoring roughly 18 to 20 points per game throughout a whole season, which will surely draw a lot of looks. The hustle stuff will further endear him to fans.

If Thompson is only capable of being a shooter, he's not going to cut it in the NBA as a starter, at least not on a good team, i.e., somebody other than the current Warriors. 

As long as Thompson remains a tremendous shooter, though, there will be a home for him in the NBA. But if he wants to be a starter, in Golden State or anywhere else, he's going to have to bring a lot more to the table.