Klay Thompson didn’t feel the need to test the free agent market, nor to entertain the idea of going to another team where he didn’t have to share the spotlight with another player, like he does now with Stephen Curry on the Warriors, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com writes. “Why go somewhere else and start over when you get a huge contract with one of the best teams in the NBA?” Thompson said. “I think only an idiot would turn that down. I love it here. Love my teammates, the organization, especially the fans, and I never really wanted to go anywhere else.” Thompson inked a maximum salary extension with Golden State in October.
Here’s more from the West:
- The two-year, $18MM deal the Lakers gave Jordan Hill this summer drew some head-scratches from executives around the league, but Hill is now the player that Los Angeles gets the most trade inquiries about, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reports. Hill had heard all the chatter about him not being worthy of his contract, but shrugged it off, notes Deveney. “I heard all that, but I didn’t pay any attention,” Hill said. “I knew I had the skills to do it, I just needed the minutes. With [Mike] D’Antoni, it was hard for me to find the minutes. He wanted me to do the things he wanted me to do to get the minutes. I couldn’t really do what I wanted to do, to play the way I know I could play. So, things happened and now it’s a whole new year. Now, I am one of the main focal points of the team, so I can go out there and do what I am capable of doing.”
- The Nuggets have received very little return on their four-year, $44MM investment in JaVale McGee, and the big man would garner little on the trade market thanks to his bloated contract and injury history, Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes. This is the peril of paying big men large salaries, Powell adds. The scribe also ran down a number of other deals handed out to centers that also haven’t worked out well for the teams writing the checks.
- There has been some criticism about how the Pelicans are eschewing the draft in an attempt to build an immediate contender around Anthony Davis so he won’t leave as a free agent when he is eligible, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM writes. Tjarks doesn’t believe New Orleans needs to worry, and despite a glaring weakness at small forward, the franchise should be able to retain Davis.