Duncan Robinson: A Klay Thompson Attribute That Is Necessary

The Duncan Robinson and Klay Thompson comparisons have been looming following a historical season from Duncan shooting the basketball.

Even though this was Duncan’s second year in the league, I consider it his rookie season since he didn’t get playing time in year one.

Duncan averaged 14 points a game this past season, while Klay Thompson averaged 13 points a game in his rookie season. Although shooting the ball is both of their best attributes, they each have a more important skill.

Klay Thompson has the ability to lock up basically anybody he gets matched up with, while Duncan’s strength is that his impact on offense comes without even touching the ball. The gravity that he holds by running around trying to get open is truly second to none.

Although an ideal addition to Duncan’s game would be Klay Thompson-like defense, that’s not where I am going with this. Instead, I believe Duncan will need to try and step inside the three point line at times.

He began to utilize this more in the bubble when he was getting blanketed, which led to many open layups. But the mid-range game is what Duncan Robinson should focus on when watching film on Klay Thompson.

Klay is one of the best at using one dribble to step inside the three to get a better shot. The reason is that once a defender is worried about that part of your game, the three point shooting gets opened up even more.

In Klay Thompson’s rookie year, he was attempting 7 two pointers a game, which is now up to 10 a game. Duncan Robinson, on the other hand, didn’t even attempt 1 two pointer a game in the regular season.

Erik Spoelstra and Jimmy Butler have constantly mentioned that they want Duncan shooting the ball as much as possible, so it’s obvious they won’t mind him shooting some more mid-range jumpers.

And it definitely isn’t a hard thing to master. As mentioned with Klay, all he needs to do is master the pump-fake into a one dribble pull up. That one move opens up Duncan Robinson’s whole entire game, which is why I’m positive that it’ll be added to his game next season.

Klay Thompson definitely isn’t a bad player to model Duncan’s game around, since they already share similar games. And surprisingly, there have been many records that Duncan has passed Klay in already.

In five NBA finals appearances for Klay Thompson, he’s only hit seven threes in a game one time.

And in Duncan Robinson’s first finals appearance, he hit seven threes in a crucial game five performance.

Duncan clearly has a chance to be the best shooter in the NBA, but it’ll be harder since Klay will be returning. But if he utilizes the mid-range jumper a bit more, I believe he can put a stamp on that title.