When it comes to the Splash Brothers, you really can’t go wrong with either taking a shot behind the 3-point line. But when it comes to developing your own shot, many coaches say the player to emulate isn’t Stephen Curry.
Coaches teaching young basketball players say falling in love with Klay Thompson‘s mechanics is more important than the long bombs Curry consistently wows Oakland crowds with. A few spoke to Sports Illustrated for a feature on how the two Golden State players differ in their impressive shooting styles.
“Everyone wants to shoot like Steph,” veteran NBA shooting coach Dave Hopla said, but the article suggests overwhelmingly that Thompson is the ideal modern shooter.
While Curry is fun to watch, he is difficult to mimic—unless you also happen to have both world-class hand-eye and lateral quickness. He shoots from a variety of release points, contorts his body to get off shots, takes preposterously deep threes, and often fires at full tilt off the dribble. Klay? He is a jumpshooting metronome: plant, pop, release. If possible, one gets the sense he’d prefer never to dribble; when he scored 60 points in three quarters earlier this season, he did so in only 90 seconds of possession. His shot contains no wasted motion, especially from the waist up. It is replicable, if not always exciting. “I’ve even begun shooting like Klay myself,” says Poser. “It simplifies everything.”
Chris Ballard even spoke with Warriors assistant coach Bruce Fraiser about the two shooters, and he agreed that Thompson is the more efficient shooter. Still, that doesn’t mean everyone wants to learn how to shoot like him.
“Unfortunately, everybody wants to do all of the fancy stuff instead of fundamentals,” Hopla says “They want to be like Steph, dribbling between the legs.” Stationary jumpers are a harder sell. “Klay Thompson catching and shooting is not glamorous, unless he hits a ton of them and they show them all on the highlights.”
Even Fraser, who’s spent years working with Curry, concurs. “If I’m teaching someone how to shoot,” Fraser says. “Klay is the model.”
There’s a bit of “fundamentals over fun” going on here, but it’s still a good point. Guitar teachers say to never emulate the slouchy rock stars you see on TV if you want to play great yourself, but those imperfect beings are what make playing look fun in the first place. And anyway, every team in the league would take either player.
Chip Engelland, the longtime Spurs shooting coach, says of the Curry vs. Klay comparison: “It’s like saying should I swing like Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays? If you can emulate either of them, I think you’re doing OK.”
The important thing to note here is that Klay Thompson’s struggles—which would be much more publicly discussed if the Warriors weren’t perfect this postseason—are easy to fix because the shot mechanics are still there. His issue seems to be mental, and it’s an issue that might be fixed after a 22-point Game 2 performance that was lost in the magic 3-point shooting of Curry and the dominance of Kevin Durant. If Thompson truly is back, the Cavaliers might be in more trouble than they know.
