“I feel you noticed tonight he is like ‘This younger boy is kicking my ass, ain’t nothing I can do about it,'” Barkley mentioned on Contained in the NBA, after the sport. “There was a time when Klay Thompson was the most effective two-way guard within the NBA and he isn’t the identical man and that is due to accidents. Is he carried out? No, I do not suppose he is carried out. I feel he is slowing down and it is catching up with him, that is why he is annoyed.”
Barkley blamed age, Klay’s two surgical procedures, and “Father Time knocking on the door of a few these guys.”
He in contrast the Warriors’ 4 championship runs — and two different journeys to the NBA Finals — to taking part in “two or three further seasons.”
The opposite Warrior he singled out was Draymond Inexperienced, who’s “slowing down, we simply noticed within the Finals. As a result of his sport is dictated on vitality and when you get previous 30, you begin dropping.”
The Warriors’ poor protection to date in 2022-23 backs Barkley up, because the staff has given up 124 factors per sport via 4 video games, and one of many points is their slowness on rotations and transition protection.
Golden State has an previous group of starters, with two 32-year-olds alongside 34-year-old Curry, however a really younger bench, with 23-year-old Jordan Poole and three different rotation gamers aged 21 and youthful (James Wiseman, Moses Moody, and Jonathan Kuminga).
Barkley thinks they’re going to want all of the younger guys to cowl for the ageing gamers if the Warriors hope to repeat.
After all, it is also solely been 4 video games, and Thompson might merely be off form after not taking part in pickup basketball all summer time.
The staff additionally had a shortened coaching camp as a result of their preseason journey to Japan. Solely time will inform if Klay is really psyched out by his decline.
The one factor we do know is that Kenny Smith is unquestionably psyched out by Chuck and Shaq making an attempt to race him to the video board.
