Mychal Thompson can’t watch his son Klay play with the Warriors this season, but he’s still keeping tabs on Golden State.
The longtime Los Angeles Lakers radio broadcaster shared his second-half predictions for the Warriors with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke in a recent interview, saying Steph Curry’s teammates need to step it up.
“Steph is Steph, he’s going to do his,” Thompson told Burke. “But the rest of those guys, if they step up and be more consistent from three, and Draymond [Green] keeps doing his Swiss [Army] knife job, doing everything for the team, the Warriors are going to be a threat. They’re going to be scary in the playoffs.”
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Thompson said rookie James Wiseman needs to keep developing and the Warriors need to shoot about 38 or 39 percent from 3-point range to find success. Through 35 games, Golden State is shooting 36.8 percent from distance, with Curry (41.3 percent) far outpacing the team’s starting wings Andrew Wiggins (34.8 percent) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (32.1 percent).
Thompson also said he thinks Green needs to be a bigger scoring threat for the Warriors.
“I think he’s capable of giving them 12 points a game just to keep defenses honest,” Thompson said.
When Green scores at least eight points in a game this year, the Warriors are a perfect 7-0.
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The NBA All-Star break is approaching and teams will soon start positioning for the postseason.
The Warriors find themselves in the middle of a murky Western Conference playoff picture as the No. 8 seed with a 19-16 record through 35 games. While the top six seeds in the conference secure a bid to the first round of the playoffs, the No. 7 through No. 10 seeds will have to advance via play-in games.
“I’m expecting the Lakers and the Warriors to meet in the second round of the playoffs,” Thompson said. “How about that? That’s my prediction.”