Klay Thompson has scored 2,899 three-pointers throughout his career, placing him fourth all-time. However, while he continues to show precision on the court, he is currently under pressure for a completely different reason.
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Joe Johnson, former Miami Heat forward who played for the team in the 2015-2016 season, commented on Thompson’s notorious problem with being late on the Nightcap Show.
“Klay better get his a** in gear; I’m telling you Pat ain’t playing with all that,” Johnson said. “The small duration time that I was there, I never seen him show favoritism, and everybody showed up way before time. I hear what Draymond is saying that Klay moves to the beat of his own drum. Hell no, it’s not going to happen. They don’t move like that; they don’t work like that.”
Johnson’s statement holds a lot of merit, considering that Pat Riley, the president of the Miami Heat team, has been notorious for his professionalism for several decades before even Thompson joined the league. It was an issue that seemed very timely too, since Thompson’s Miami Heat introduction was already delayed for almost an hour due to traffic in August 2026.
This statement was in response to some statements made by Draymond Green, who was Thompson’s teammate for more than ten years and won championships with him. Green questioned the effectiveness of Thompson’s laid-back style in Miami’s philosophy.
“I found it interesting when I saw they said Klay going to Miami,” Green said on his own show. “I was like, oh, that Heat Culture thing. I don’t know how that’s going to work for Klay, because Klay moves to the beat of his own drum. It’s no maliciousness to it; it’s just who Klay is.”
The view of Green is one that stems from experience. Green saw Thompson sleep his way through a shootaround in December 2016, followed by the latter scoring 60 points in 29 minutes on just 11 dribbles in the subsequent night, a routine that Green says is “Thompson’s way of making it right.”
Regardless of the trend, Thompson seems to have accepted the challenges lying ahead. In an interview that was featured in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel by Ira Winderman, Thompson admitted that he looked forward to the physical challenges of being on the team and Erik Spoelstra’s system.
“A lot of players warn me about how tough it is, but I like hard stuff like that,” Thompson said. “Coming back from those injuries was harder than any conditioning drill or game I had to play.”
Thompson signed a two-year, $11.5 million contract after a buyout from the Dallas Mavericks and will now play for a Heat team restructured around Giannis Antetokounmpo via a big-time trade made by the team last month in July. Last season, Thompson was averaging only 11.7 points per game while shooting 38.3% from the three-point line.
It remains to be seen if Thompson will be able to sync up with all the demands that President Pat Riley is placing on him.