The Golden State Warriors were able to beat the deadline and come to an agreement with Klay Thompson on a contract extension. Thompson will now stay with the Warriors for another four years and now he can shift his focus to solely basketball for the remainder of the year.
The Warriors knew that if he became a restricted free agent, plenty of teams would be happy to pay the 24-year-old. One team in particular was looking to land Thompson via trade well before the off-season. According to Marc J Spears of Yahoo Sports, the Kings were serious about landing the Splash Brother:
Kings made late push to try to acquire Klay Thompson for anyone not named Cousins or Gay, a source said. Might have helped push GS agreement
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) October 31, 2014
Not sure which players the Kings had in mind, but without DeMarcus Cousins or Rudy Gay in the offer, it’s hard to take the Kings seriously. Unless the Kings were thinking of adding four first round picks, the Warriors were not going to ship Thompson away.
If the Warriors were unwilling to give up Thompson for Kevin Love, the Kings must have been foolishly optimistic to think they had a shot at trading for him. Thompson finished with 19 points and 6 assists in the win against Sacramento.