"Obviously, Kevin Loew is a good player, but the Warriors made the right decision not to send Klay Thompson away," Curry said at the end of August '14 after the dust settled on the Loew trade.

At that time, the new season had not yet started, and Curry was not sure whether it was right to leave Thompson behind.

Turning the clock to early January 2015, Thompson blasted 40 points on 14-of-25 shooting, and Loew scored just 17 points against the Rockets on the same day — and most importantly, without Love, the Warriors' 28-5 record still tops the league. At this moment, the warriors are full of confidence.

"I don't know where we would be if we had made that trade, and I doubt we'd be better off if we traded for Love," the Warriors' anonymous executive said in an interview with CSN.

In fact, this statement can also be regarded as a summary of the past three years, because from 2012 to 2014, Thompson was involved in trade rumors for three consecutive summers, and the stars associated with his name included James Harden, Dwight Howard and Love.

In the summer of '12, when the Thunder wanted to trade Harden, they actually called the Warriors first, they wanted to trade Harden for Thompson + a draft pick, the Warriors did not reject the proposal, they were willing to give up Thompson for Harden, but they hoped that the Thunder could swallow the garbage contract of Biederin or Richard Jefferson to help them avoid the luxury tax. Of course, the Thunder, who have always operated at a small cost, did not want to, so they quickly said goodbye and then made a deal with the Rockets.

In the summer of '13, Howard became a free agent, Warriors owner Joe Lacob, general manager Bobby Meyers, and then-coach Mark Jackson formed a lobby to recruit Howard, and they were willing to take out chips including Thompson, Boggart, Barnes, etc. to sign and trade with the Lakers, but the Lakers were not interested in signing and trading, and they were willing to watch Howard go, and Howard went around and chose Houston.

Then in the summer of 2014, when the Timberwolves were selling Loew all over the world, the Warriors called, and they were the frontrunners in the Loew race for a time, according to ESPN, they offered a trade proposal for Thompson plus guard Lee and a first-round pick for Loew, Barria, Martin and a No. 13 pick, and Thompson's dad, Michael Thompson, admitted that his son was involved in the deal. At that time, it seemed that Thompson's journey from warm California to icy Minnesota was a foregone conclusion.

However, disagreements broke out within the Warriors' top management on whether to trade Thompson, and owner Lacob strongly advocated sending Thompson away in exchange for Loew, and at that time the Warriors still fantasized about using the combination of Curry + Loew to lure LeBron to join. However, Jerry West, the Warriors' advisor and Lakers' godfather, and Steve Kerr, the new coach of the Warriors, were adamantly opposed, and Mr. West said: "Why should we tear down our backcourt combination so strong? Even if you want to change a star, you shouldn't break up the Splash Brothers. In the end, Lacob chose to compromise.

On October 31, 2014, the Warriors renewed Thompson's contract with a four-year 70 million salary cap, and the soap opera finally came to an end after three years of trade rumors. However, the Warriors and Thompson are facing no less doubts, after all, Thompson has not yet proven that he deserves the top salary, and Loew and Harden are either skilled data brushes or All-Stars.

But the doubts only existed for one day. On November 1, Thompson scored 41 points and 5 rebounds on 14-of-18 shooting from the Lakers, completely gaining the upper hand against Kobe. After the game, Thompson also won Kobe's praise.

Well, the Lakers are too weak, don't worry, on November 2, the Warriors played back-to-back games against the Trail Blazers, 8.9 seconds before the end of the game, the Warriors fell behind by 1 point, Thompson quickly slipped the bottom line and cut out, and the inside line set up a layer of cover for him to delay Matthews, Thompson received the ball smoothly, resisted Matthews's follow-up defense, forced into the paint area and threw it backwards after completion, quasi-lore!

In the first two months of the season, Thompson averaged more than 21 points per game, and he was at the top of the scoring charts at one point. In the first month of the new year, Thompson upgraded again. Playing the Pacers on Jan. 9, he scored 40 points. Half a month later, against the Kings, he shot 16 of 25, including 11 of 15 three-pointers, and scored a career-high 52 points, including 37 points in a single quarter in the third quarter, breaking the NBA all-time single-quarter scoring record, and the most terrifying thing is that he shot all 13 in this quarter.

"It's all so unrealistic, and his performance reminds me of Jordan," Kerr said. Thompson's dad said, "He seems to have summoned the skills of Jordan, Miller and Kobe in his body, he was possessed by these people, he did what Kobe and Jordan failed to do, and people will never forget this feat." ”

After the first 50 games of that season, Thompson averaged 22.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks per game, shooting 47.3% from the field and 44.1% from three-point range. Points, shooting percentage, three-point shooting percentage, assists, steals, and blocks all hit career highs.

"Thompson is the No. 1 quarterback in the league," Iguodala said, "and I don't care who the second and third are." ”

Today, looking back, Harden has become a superstar with the Rockets, and in 2012 the Warriors came close to winning the battle for Harden. However, Harden is not reliable on the defensive end, and the Warriors have always sent the skinny Curry to defend the opponent's weakest offensive player, and for them, Harden is really not a good choice.

As for Howard, he has begun to lose his magic before the age of 30, and since he suffered a back injury, his competitive form has declined and he has never returned to the top, and he has been tormented by a knee injury this season. Loew has not returned to the beast mode of killing all sides in the past since joining the Cavaliers this season, with the offensive ball possession plummeting and the defense repeatedly criticized.

It was also after these transactions were not completed, and when I looked back at Klay Thompson, people were surprised to find that this guy had honed not only his shooting, but even his defense.

At this time, someone finally began to brag about Klay Thompson, Klay Thompson and Cavaliers player LeBron James are two of the best all-around players in the active league.

This sentence can be said to be the greatest praise among all compliments, and there is no doubt that anyone can compare it with the first person in the league, which can be said from any angle that this guy is amazing.

Klay Thompson is one such guy, and after all the trade rumors, he finally got the approval of others.

I almost forgot... The one who said this ... It's Magic Johnson...