We like looking back in time on NBA Tuesday, and this piece today is no different. Everyone knows Stephen Curry is a generational talent, like Michael Jordan and LeBron James, really—incredible stars who not only overcame defenses designed to squelch them but still thrived while also somehow making the players around them look really good, too. Yes, we’re talking about you, Scottie Pippen … but also some others, too.

For Curry and the Golden State Warriors, those overrated sidekicks were shooting guards Klay Thompson (2011-2019, 2021-2024) and Jordan Poole (2019-2021), both of whom where jettisoned wisely by the team’s front office. Without Curry playing next to them and drawing the defense’s attention, both these supporting-cast members have struggled in ways that really demonstrate Curry’s real value to their careers.

First, Thompson: he just finished his only season away from the Warriors’ legend, and even though age is a factor, too, Thompson was downright bad this year with the Dallas Mavericks. He shot a career-worst .412 from the floor, including an atrocious .448 clip from two-point range. That was his lowest mark since his second season in the NBA, way back in 2012-2013. In fact, it’s interesting to look at his best stretch, as well.

In the Warriors’ dominant run from 2015-2019, when they made the NBA Finals five times in a row, Thompson had the luxury of playing with the best of the best—including three seasons with Kevin Durant in there, too, meaning Thompson may have been third fiddle most often and basically unguarded in comparison to his two legendary teammates. His shooting numbers in those five years? Astronomical.

Because any player worth an NBA roster slot has to hit uncontested midrange shots: Thompson shot the rock at a .510-plus clip four of those five seasons from two-point range, and the other season, he delivered a .481 percentage from the floor. It’s easy to look good when no one is guarding you because you’re the third banana on an all-time dynasty roster. No coincidence that are his only All-Star years, too. Or maybe not?

Even when Thompson came back from multiple leg injuries to help the Warriors win another title in 2022, his two-point shot percentage (.477) was nowhere near that peak era. In Dallas, he was playing with a combination of Kyrie Irving, Luka Dončić, and Anthony Davis, too, so it’s not like his teammates weren’t good. Of course, two of those players weren’t in the backcourt with him, either, so we have to note that. Still.

Either way, sabermetrically, Thompson stunk in Dallas: his .045 WS/48 mark was the worst of his career, far from the .127 mark he posted in that five-year championship stretch and also lower than his post-injury average, too, for his final seasons with Golden State (.077). This is a guy who peaked in 2015 and has just been a middling caddy to Curry and others ever since then. Dallas still owes him $34M now, too, so … ouch.

As for Poole, well, it’s been two years now since the Warriors dumped his salary on the Washington Wizards, and the results have been similarly brutal. Remember, Poole was also a third banana, generally, in his best season in the NBA (2021-2022), and as the top dog, allegedly, in Washington, he’s been absolutely atrocious without any excuses of age or injuries to fall back on. Golden State is fortunate they avoided this.

In four seasons with the Warriors, Poole posted .068 WS/48, and in two seasons with the Wizards, that number has fallen drastically (.015). He literally adds almost nothing to the Washington roster, despite the counting stats that most fans think matter (18.8 points per game, up from 15.8 ppg with Golden State). But Poole shot just .421 from the floor overall with the Warriors, and that number is just .422 with the Wizards.

He’s just taken more shots in Washington while also committing more turnovers. Sound familiar? His usage rate also has gone up with the Wizards, meaning his ineffectiveness and inefficiencies are magnified in his value to his team now, more so than they were in Golden State’s rotation. He benefitted with the Warriors as an option outlet when Curry was double or triple teamed; he can’t create on his own now. Hoop facts, folks.

That’s a difference between top dogs like Curry and sidekicks like Thompson/Poole. Curry has had a full career of constantly being guarded, while Thompson and Poole—and Pippen—were just standing there waiting for the pass from the elite stars they played next to, so they then could take advantage of a defense that didn’t consider them to be the real threat. And again, any NBA player worth anything hits open shots.

When people talk about Thompson like he’s a Hall of Famer, it’s the same mistake they made with Pippen: look at his WS/48 marks when he wasn’t playing with Jordan. In 12 seasons overall with the Bulls, he posted .158 WS/48, and in the five seasons with other teams? Pippen managed just .116 WS/48 in four seasons with Portland and just .112 WS/48 in one season with Houston. Sure, he was older, but come on … that’s rough.

But we digress as this is not about Pippen; it’s about Thompson and Poole—and the dozens of overrated NBA players just like them, playing alongside legends and being glorified by association, undeservedly. We really are wondering why franchise front-office peeps are not more in tune with the realities of sabermetrics. The math really does reveal all in the end, even if there are anomalies here and there in life.