Klay Thompson

Klay Thompson established the statistical ceiling for three-point shooting in a single game on October 29, 2018, against the Chicago Bulls. He made 14 three-pointers across 40 minutes — a record that exceeded his own previous single-game mark and came after a 2015 game in which he scored 37 points in a single quarter, also a record. Those two events bracket what Thompson represented for the Warriors dynasty: an offensive weapon so focused and so consistent in his range that defenses had no clean solution at either end of the court.

His seventh-place standing on the all-time three-point list with more than 2,400 career threes came across a career interrupted by two catastrophic injuries — an ACL tear in 2019 and an Achilles rupture in 2020 — that cost him three full seasons at what should have been the statistical peak of his accumulation. The fact that he returned from both and contributed meaningfully to the Warriors' 2022 championship reflects a physical and psychological resilience that his shooting stroke had always suggested was there.

Four championship rings across the Warriors dynasty give Thompson a résumé that his individual counting stats undersell. His defensive work on opposing guards, his off-ball movement patterns, and his willingness to accept reduced volume for team efficiency were all functional components of one of the most successful team constructions in modern basketball history.

Thompson attended Washington State before Golden State selected him 11th overall in 2011. He became the second half of the "Splash Brothers" alongside Stephen Curry — a shooting partnership that has produced more three-pointers, championships, and offensive efficiency records than any two-player backcourt combination in NBA history.