The Dallas Mavericks are buying out veteran guard Klay Thompson, the team announced Friday afternoon. Thompson will become a free agent, and reportedly sign with the Miami Heat.
This was a long-rumored scenario, especially when it became clear the Mavericks were moving in a new direction around Cooper Flagg when ownership hired Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz to run the basketball operations, fired Jason Kidd and hired college coach Dusty May.
Thompson played two seasons in Dallas, and they were far from the memorable experiences that Mavericks fans envisioned when it felt like a coup the Mavericks signed him in the first place away from the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers in 2024. Dallas was fresh off an NBA Finals loss to the Celtics that featured multiple role players failing to knock down shots or properly space the floor around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Enter Thompson: statistically the second-greatest three point shooter of all time, someone with championship experience to help Doncic and the Mavericks get over the hump. We all know what happened next, and the team Thompson signed up for was very much not that team after the trade of Doncic last February.
Despite it all, Thompson was a good soldier. We didn’t hear too many whiffs of discontent from Dallas media, and Thompson took on the role of veteran leader as the Mavericks cycled through various young players in the last two seasons due to the Doncic trade and injuries. Thompson never played a playoff game with the Mavericks, that’s a damn shame. But it was fun to see him continue to light it up regularly.
Thompson wasn’t his old self after the two major leg injuries, but he still provided the shooting and spacing the Mavericks desperately needed. Thompson shot 38.7 percent on threes in his two seasons with the Mavericks on 7.7 three point attempts per game. At times he was the entire floor gravity for a Mavericks team that was injured and cramped with inconsistent shooters.
Mavericks fans might lament Thompson being let go for nothing, but it’s the right call: Dallas is fully rebuilding around Flagg, and it’ll be hard to give younger guys more burn if all the veterans hang around the roster. Obviously there needs to be a balance, and teams need adults in the room, but the Mavericks have adults in large supply — moving on and freeing up some of the wing logjam will only help Dallas get a better picture of their roster and evaluate it as time moves on.
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