Because Klay Thompson has won four championships and been selected to the All-Star team five times, he believes that he should have plenty of time to correct the relative difficulties he has been experiencing this season.

When he was asked about head coach Steve Kerr’s patience with the starting lineup, he responded with a slightly dismissive tone, “What, do you want them to bench me?”

“… There are times when you have to work for things like patience and time in order to discover who you are. Whenever it comes to matters of that nature, I believe that history is on our side. I would not care what other people think. They are unable to compete with us because they do not do what we do. That is the reason why they communicate.”

One would have a difficult time refuting Thompson’s argument.

After all, he is a franchise icon who has been instrumental in the Warriors’ success, as seen by the fact that they have won four championships and made it to the NBA Finals on two additional occasions since being taken with the first-round pick in the 2011 draft. He has a lengthy history of success competing with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, and he is widely considered to be one of the best three-point shooters in the history of the game.

Despite this, he is 33 years old and suffered injuries that prevented him from playing in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. In 2021-22, he only participated in 32 games. He is not the same player he was when he was at the height of his career, and he is currently earning an average of 15 points per game while shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from deep.

The shooting totals would be the lowest of his career if they did not alter, and the scoring average would be the lowest figure he has achieved since he was a rookie.

Despite the fact that Golden State is currently 8-9 on the season and is striving to find some consistency, Thompson did not appear to believe that his coming off the bench will assist the team in achieving its goal of finding consistency.