They splashed onto the scene, already legends as the best shooting backcourt the NBA had ever seen. It was the early 2010s, when everyone thought you still needed a strong frontcourt to win a championship. But the Golden State Warriors changed that narrative. Not only were they small and could score prolifically, but they played defense. At their peak, they had the best regular season in NBA history, only to watch it crumble to LeBron James's Cavs in 2016, in what is the best NBA Finals I have witnessed. Then they acquired Kevin Durant in the offseason to become one of the best teams of all time. They were unbeatable. I don't even think my '08 Celtics could beat them.
Curry was underrated compared to Durant, while Klay was underrated compared to Curry. When Klay and Durant got injured in the 2019 finals, things went downhill fast. They became one of the worst teams in the league overnight. Yet they had won a title in 2015 without Durant, which made me believe that the real lynch pin was the hardly recognized Klay Thompson, whose all around game is the best of any shooting guard in this era. Klay spreads the floor for Curry to do his magic on offense. Without him, the offense contracts the same way the Celtics did without Ray Allen. Unlike Allen- another of my favorite shooting guards- Klay is an elite defender. He has the savviest intuition for what a player will do, so as he isn't necessarily the quickest or most talented defender, he makes up for it in reading the defense.
Durant's departure and Klay's injuries saw the Warriors reach a surprising low as they went to the bottom of the league. Surprising to most. When Klay came back this year, the Warriors were suddenly winning again. No one thought they'd make it to the finals, much less when it all again. He didn't even necessarily play well; we all saw what his partner in crime splash brother Curry did. It's simply his presence that makes the Warriors better, on both sides of the court. That is why nobody sees the divine element that makes the Warriors so great- that elusive element of magic that Curry and Klay's chemistry has conjured over the years, even when they aren't 100% healthy. And that is the scariest thing for the league to take away from this finals: they weren't even at full strength.
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