Born in Los Angeles, and son of Mychal Thompson, Klay Thompson moved to Oregon where he spent part of his childhood and adolescence. At that time, in the late 90s, the local phenomenon was called Mike Dunleavy Jr. himself the son of the former coach of the Lakers and Blazers, and their common passion for basketball made their paths cross.
Nearly 25 years later, Klay Thompson is now an NBA superstar at the Warriors and Mike Dunleavy Jr has just been promoted to GM there to succeed Bob Myers. Asked about the promotion of the former assistant GM of the franchise, Klay Thompson therefore recalled that he knew the subject well for having closely followed the rise of Mike Dunleavy Jr since his debut.
“I love Mike Dunleavy. I grew up watching Mike play in Portland, Jesuit High School, be McDonalds All-American and then go to Duke and then go to the NBA,” did he declare. “It was a huge thing for Oregon. We didn’t have a lot of guys who could do that. Now I work with him, it’s crazy. The world is so small. Especially in the basketball world.
A lot of pressure on the shoulders
Former Duke then Warriors player, Dunleavy will first be one of Klay Thompson’s role models, before becoming a close friend, and now his GM.
“Now he’s technically my boss, whereas he was kind of my big brother when I was young, going to his house, throwing us in the pool and everything. Now it’s crazy to work with him. I know Mike is going to do great things”added Klay Thompson.
It now remains to impose his paw as GM after a first exchange which made it possible to bring in Chris Paul and to send Jordan Poole out. Because as Stephen Curry reminded us, the objective of the Warriors is to “win now”.
“The transition is always difficult. Change is difficult. Especially in this league where the stakes are so high. But I’ve loved the conversations I’ve had with Mike Dunleavy Jr so far, out of commitment and his belief in his ideas. It is now a matter of going out there and implementing them”underlined the point guard of Golden State.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Stephen Curry | 56 | 34.7 | 49.3 | 42.7 | 91.5 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 6.3 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 29.4 |
| Klay Thompson | 69 | 33.0 | 43.6 | 41.2 | 87.9 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 21.9 |
| Jordan Poole | 82 | 30.0 | 43.0 | 33.6 | 87.0 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 20.4 |
| Andrew Wiggins | 37 | 32.2 | 47.3 | 39.6 | 61.1 | 1.6 | 3.4 | 5.0 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 2.9 | 17.1 |
| Jonathan Kuminga | 67 | 20.8 | 52.5 | 37.0 | 65.2 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 3.4 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 9.9 |
| Donte Divincenzo | 72 | 26.3 | 43.5 | 39.7 | 81.7 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 9.4 |
| Draymond Green | 73 | 31.5 | 52.7 | 30.5 | 71.3 | 0.9 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 8.5 |
| Kevon Looney | 82 | 23.9 | 63.0 | 0.0 | 60.6 | 3.3 | 5.9 | 9.3 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 7.0 |
| James Wiseman | 21 | 12.5 | 62.8 | 50.0 | 68.4 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 6.9 |
| Ty Jerome | 45 | 18.1 | 48.8 | 38.9 | 92.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 6.9 |
| Anthony Lamb | 62 | 19.3 | 47.1 | 36.7 | 76.7 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 6.7 |
| Jamychal Green | 57 | 14.0 | 54.0 | 37.8 | 77.6 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 6.4 |
| Gary Payton II | 7 | 16.1 | 60.7 | 44.4 | 66.7 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 4.3 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 5.7 |
| Moses Moody | 63 | 13.0 | 47.6 | 36.3 | 69.8 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 4.8 |
| Patrick Baldwin, Jr. | 31 | 7.3 | 39.4 | 38.1 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.9 |
| Lester Quinones | 4 | 4.5 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.5 |
| Andre Iguodala | 8 | 14.1 | 46.7 | 11.1 | 66.7 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 2.1 |
| ryan rollins | 12 | 5.2 | 35.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 1.9 |
