Charles Barkley: Klay Thompson is the NBA's second-best player

Charles Barkley wasted no time - quite literally - to unleash a blazing hot take for this NBA season.

Just minutes into TNT's NBA Tip-Off, Barkley said that the second-best player in the world is Klay Thompson. He had LeBron James at No. 1, but after that, he said he'd choose Thompson just ahead of Kawhi Leonard.

Barkley had never been too high on Steph Curry despite Curry's historic 2015-16 season. But to say that Thompson is better than Curry? That's questionable - if not straight-up absurd - but not surprising given what Barkley has said in the past.

This was how the exchange went down:

What was surprising was Barkley's ranking of Kevin Durant.

Barkley would put Thompson ahead of Leonard based on offensive ability, and Kenny Smith pointed out that Barkley may have been forgetting about Durant, but nope, the former MVP was "right there after those guys."

If we let the numbers be the judge, then, well, uh, it's not particularly close.

Barkley has always been a big fan of Thompson. That apparently hasn't changed.