After spending over a decade with the Golden State Warriors, guard Klay Thompson is no longer a member of the team. He agreed to sign with the defending Western Conference champions — the Dallas Mavericks — on a three-year, $50 million deal.
Although the way in which Thompson’s stint in Golden State came to an end was anticlimactic — he had a down year in the 2023-24 season before joining the Mavericks — Draymond Green said his departure still marked a “happy divorce.”
“It’s a happy divorce, if there’s a divorce,” Green said. “A lot of divorces are nasty. This ain’t one of them. I don’t even qualify it as a divorce. It’s just the next chapter in all of our lives. It’s an opportunity for me and Steph [Curry], see what we can do together.”
In his last season in Golden State, Thompson averaged the least points per game (17.9) since all the way back in the 2012-13 campaign. Additionally, his three-point percentage of 38.7 percent was the second-worst of his NBA career.
Thompson’s last game as a Warrior served as a microcosm of how his 2023-24 campaign panned out. In Golden State’s play-in loss to the Sacramento Kings — which eliminated the Warriors from playoff contention — he didn’t score a single point and missed every one of his 10 shots from the floor.
The 34-year-old might not be the same caliber player he was earlier in his pro career, but he is still a major acquisition for a Mavericks team that will try to make it back to the NBA Finals in 2025 and finish the job.
Thompson seemingly won’t have to shoulder as much responsibility on the offensive side of the ball as he did in Golden State, either. The Mavericks have a pair of all-time great offensive weapons in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and they should help make Thompson’s life easier on that end of the floor.
The former Washington State University star’s first chance to play in a regular-season game for Dallas will come when the Mavericks play the San Antonio Spurs on Oct. 24. Dallas’ preseason slate is already in full swing, though Thompson didn’t suit in its preseason opener versus the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 7.
Perhaps Thompson will prove to be what the Mavericks have needed to get over the hump and become NBA champions.
