With Klay Thompson reportedly headed to the Mavericks in a sign-and-trade deal, how does he stand to help the Finals runners-up?
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When folks think back to the Golden State Warriors of recent memory, they will remember guard Stephen Curry as the face of the franchise and a player who revolutionized the NBA. Draymond Green will be recalled as the grit, the mouth, and the mean.
But Klay Thompson likely will be thought of as the glue of that successful team, committed to the group, and as capable of leading with some comic relief as he often did with his skill at both ends.
Here are three takeaways as a big page turned on Warriors basketball Monday, with the news that Thompson, a free agent guard, is heading to the Dallas Mavericks for a three-year, $50 million contract:
1. Sun sets on Splash dynasty
It isn’t always easy to tie a bow on an era. Bill Russell and Michael Jordan pulled it off, retiring to put full stops on their respective teams’ great runs, but they might be exceptions.
Some will argue a dynasty ends with its last championship, which both Russell’s Celtics in 1969 and Jordan’s Bulls in 1998 had. Others will focus on the most obvious whimper of goodbye, which the Warriors coughed up in losing their Play-In game to Sacramento by 24 points.
Many, however, will mark the end of Golden State’s extended run by Thompson’s departure. He’s the first to go of the three core players who started and were part of it all: Curry, Green and Thompson.
Sure, Kevin Durant came and went, and his two Finals MVP trophies make Durant’s case as an essential member. But the bandwagon was rolling when the lanky sharpshooter jumped aboard and, to almost everyone’s surprise, it didn’t stop when Durant left.
This time, this exit, hits different.
Warriors statement on Klay Thompson: pic.twitter.com/qIscaFW5mN
— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) July 2, 2024
Thompson arrived in 2011 as the perfect backcourt partner to the slithery, slippery Curry. He brought catch-and-shoot prowess, defense, a certain toughness, and a team-first commitment that could seem wonderfully naïve in modern pro sports. Green came on a year later, a unique and mercurial performer plugged into the middle of it all.
For the record, that Golden State crew earned four championships and played in six NBA Finals in their 10 seasons of actually playing together (Thompson missed the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons with injuries). They were 306 games over .500 in those 10 years, with Thompson missing (and triggering) the 15-50 post-COVID regrouping.
2. Unfortunate but inevitable
This feels wrong, of course, seeing a vaunted contributor to so much success pack off by himself for a Western Conference rival. Several have drawn comparisons to Ray Allen leaving Boston for Miami in 2012, but Thompson’s Bay Area roots ran much deeper.
Sentiment takes a back seat to the NBA’s current collective bargaining agreement and its cap restrictions, tax aprons, penalties on roster tools and more. Even the Chase Center ATM can’t belch up money fast enough to fund the payroll if the Warriors aren’t stacking up a couple rounds worth of home playoff gates every spring.
As GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. said when Thompson’s fate came up in a pre-Draft chat with reporters: “To completely strip the emotion away from [it], I think that’s almost impossible. But this is a business.”
For his part, Thompson issued a Friday evening message on social media, thanking Bay Area fans for “the best times of his life”:
“It was such an honor to put that Dubs jersey on from day 1. I really just wanted to be the best I could be and help bring as many championships as possible to the region. The best part was not the rings though, it was the friendships I made that will last a lifetime.
“Don’t be sad it’s over,” he continued, “Be happy it happened. Until we meet again. Sea captain out.”
The franchise has turned a corner and is working toward a new era. The finances have to track, and they don’t have room for a sweet services-rendered payday, not at 2024 prices. Remember, too, that the Warriors signed Thompson to his five-year, $190 million max contract in July 2019 — between his torn ACL and ruptured Achilles tendon injuries.
3. Dallas got better
There still were details to be finalized when this one leaked as a three-team deal between Golden State, Dallas and Charlotte. That’s awkward, leaving the whole arrangement uncomfortably in doubt. But from what was reported, combined with some other moves, the Mavericks team that just reached the 2024 Finals seems to have improved.
On Sunday, reports first emerged of Dallas coming to an agreement with New Orleans free agent Naji Marshall on a three-year, $27 million contract. That led to Mavs forward Derrick Jones Jr. heading to the Clippers. The Mavericks already had traded Tim Hardaway Jr. to Detroit for guard Quentin Grimes. Also, Josh Green was said to be headed to Charlotte in the Thompson three-way.
Marshall projects as an upgrade over the journeyman Jones. And who better than Thompson, renowned for getting buckets on a minimum number of dribbles, to play alongside ball-dominant stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving?
Never mind if the former Warrior at 34 has enough in the tank over the next three seasons. What matters most is 2024-25. Dallas needs to repeat in the West and push through its championship window right now. By skill set, by motivation, and by fit, few would be better suited to bringing the right boost than Thompson.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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