Agent for Klay Thompson asks max contract

Kevin Love and Stephen Curry will be teammates soon enough, but not in the sense that so many have expected.

The Minnesota Timberwolves forward who wants to wear a new jersey will suit up for Team USA later this month, as will the Golden State Warriors point guard whose team has been debating this notion of trading for Love for so long now. But as the days have continued to pass without a deal, and as the Cleveland Cavaliers have continued to ask themselves similar questions about Love and what price they're willing to pay to land him, this much has become clear: The Warriors still care about defense — a lot.

The Mark Jackson firing and Steve Kerr hiring in mid-May were undeniably driven in part by the desire to improve offensively, as owner Joe Lacob and so many others within the organization grew tired of seeing their wondrous scoring talents so often struggle in the former coach's system. But the post-Kerr question about Golden State's third-ranked defense and what lied ahead on that end of the floor has been quietly answered during these seemingly-endless discussions about Love.

In short, they're not willing to ditch the defense.

Their recent refusal to include guard and Timberwolves target Klay Thompson in the deal is rooted in this reality, as losing Thompson would not only leave Curry overexposed defensively in the backcourt but is compounded by the fact that Love — much like incumbent power forward David Lee, who would head to Minnesota if this deal got done — isn't exactly known as a two-way player. From Lacob on down, this is a major part of the Warriors' internal analysis and something that belies all the initial speculation about how this Kerr era might be defined.

A starting five of Curry, Kevin Martin (who has been offered as a Thompson replacement), Andre Iguodala, Love and Andrew Bogut would be dynamic, to be sure, but only Bogut and Iguodala are known as elite defenders and the defensive deficiencies of the other three are well-chronicled. Yet Kerr had said from the start that he wanted a stretch four to add another potent layer to the offense, and so it seemed inevitable in those early stages of discussions with Minnesota that his much talked-about need would be filled by Love at any cost.

Many of those early assumptions now appear off-base. And just as the Thompson component can be seen as a sign that the Warriors aren't willing to regress on the defensive end, there is other evidence of this unexpected development to be found on Kerr's coaching staff as well.

His hiring of assistant coach Ron Adams was one of the many impressive additions to his staff, as the former Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics assistant is widely regarded one of the best defensive minds in the game. Lacob deserves some credit here, as he made it clear to Kerr that he had a proverbial blank check to come up with a quality staff and he proceeded by joining forces with Adams, Alvin Gentry (former head coach and now Warriors associate head coach), Luke Walton and Jarron Collins (respected former players who will help Kerr bridge the player-coach gap) as well as Bruce Fraser (former Phoenix Suns scout during Kerr's days there who was with the Clippers last season).

The Thompson debate doesn't stop with the defensive element, of course. On the financial front, landing Love would eventually require giving him a max contract that would likely start at approximately $19 million annually (he has indicated he'll opt out of his current deal and become a free agent next summer).

Meanwhile, Thompson's agent, Bill Duffy, has been seeking a max deal in extension talks with the Warriors as well. And while Golden State would surely prefer that the stance eventually softens and leads to a more palatable deal, the fact that he is younger means a max for Thompson would start at $15.7 million and still allow for more flexibility in the Warriors future than a Love deal.

Even with Love's unofficial status as a top 10 player, his inability to get to the playoffs in seven seasons remains a black eye of sorts among some executives. The Timberwolves' litany of injuries throughout the years is the most glaring reason why, but the 2013-14 version of the Timberwolves was talented enough to get there and simply couldn't get it done.

Thompson, meanwhile, left a lasting impression on his bosses with the way he played in his most recent postseason. Kerr wasn't part of the program just yet, but he had a front-row seat as a TNT analyst and was just as impressed as the rest of them.
"Klay guarded Chris Paul the entire Clippers series," Kerr, who spoke about Thompson but did not discuss the Love situation, told USA TODAY Sports on Friday. "He has allowed Steph to conserve some energy at the defensive end, and to slide over to a shooter. The versatility that we have defensively between Klay and (new point guard) Shaun Livingston and (small forward) Andre (Iguodala), it's really important for us…We're excited about our roster."

In addition to becoming a scorer on the rise (18.4 points per game last season on 44.4% shooting overall and 41.7% from three-point range), Thompson's task of guarding the other team's point guard is significant here. The Warriors need Curry to continue playing like the face of their franchise that he is, but overburdening him with a backcourt partner who doesn't live up to Thompson's standards defensively is seen as a major threat to this crucial component.

"We should be very balanced," Kerr continued. "We should be good at both ends of the floor. I'd like to use our bigs a little bit more offensively as passers and playmakers. The strength of our team, besides the backcourt shooting, is the length on the wings. Between Andre and Harrison (Barnes) and Draymond (Green) and Klay and Shaun Livingston, we've got a lot of long defenders, who can switch and play a lot of different people. We should be able to take advantage of that and be a very good defensive team."

But can they become an elite team without a Love-like upgrade? Kerr and his staff will have everything to do with the answer there. He wants to get the ball moving again on the offensive end, to swing it from side to side while implementing some elements of the triangle offense that worked so well for those Chicago Bulls teams that won three of Kerr's five championships as a player (the other two were with the San Antonio Spurs).

There's a level of experience with this Warriors group now that can't be overlooked, too, and it shouldn't be forgotten that pushing the Clippers to seven games without Bogut in their first round loss was no small feat. But Bogut being out with a broken rib was a death knell to their defense that they simply couldn't survive, and perhaps there was a lesson learned in that.
"Honestly, I have not given that one bit of thought," Kerr said when asked if his group could be title contenders if the roster stays as is. "The way I look at the West, Oklahoma City and San Antonio are a step ahead of everyone else and we're in that mix behind those two teams right now. Our goal is to be as good as we can be and we'll see what happens."