Positioned directly in the dog days of summer, it’s prime time for teams to bluff like crazy, which appears to be what the Mavericks are doing.
One of the latest developments this offseason is a potential Klay Thompson-Lakers pairing. The veteran sharpshooter was once a free agent target in a different era for the purple and gold. After changes in both Dallas and Los Angeles, he could be back on the market late this summer with the Lakers interested.
Entering the final year of his contract, Thompson is a prime buyout candidate. Teams are aware of this and are lining up for him, with the Lakers included among them.
However, Dallas is also aware of that interest and is definitely not bluffing that they’ll keep Thompson and trade him. For now, that is their stance, as reported by Jake Fischer on a recent Bleacher Report video (emphasis added).
“To this point, Dallas has not been looking to find a buyout agreement with Klay Thompson. He’s got one year left on a three-year, $51 million deal that he signed two seasons ago when he left the Golden State Warriors, the franchise he won four championships with, of course…Klay Thompson very nearly chose the Los Angeles Lakers with then LeBron James over joining Dallas originally to pair with Luka Doncic and where’s Luka Doncic right now? Of course, with the Lakers. There’s plenty of connective tissue there that makes sense here. The only thing is, the Mavericks have been very resistant, to my understanding, of actually moving forward and agreeing to a buyout with Klay Thompson. They believe this market that’s shaping up for him, the fact that there is some LA interest, the fact that there is Miami interest. There’s probably other places that have interest in Klay Thompson as well.”
This is always the silly portion of this process. The team pretends they’re not going to buy out a player and trade him because of the interest in the player. But the interest in the player only exists if they’re bought out. So a team has to pretend they won’t buy him out while no one gives them a trade proposal.
As things stand, Thompson seems set for a buyout. Whether the Lakers have interest from that point does remain in the air. They already have too many players on the roster before signing him and likely wouldn’t guarantee him more like a spot off the bench.
Miami, meanwhile, seems like a place that could offer him a bigger role. It also becomes a question of how much he wants to play in Los Angeles.
Eventually, it seems like all that will be up for debate. But, for now, the Mavericks are going to continue bluffing.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRudeor on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
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