After 13 seasons and 4 NBA Championships with the Golden State Warriors, 5-time All-Star Klay Thompson is leaving the Bay to join superstar Luka Doncic in Dallas. The sharpshooter signed a 3-year, $50 million deal with the Mavericks on Monday.
The deal was a sign-and-trade that sent guard Josh Green to the Charlotte Hornets and two second-round picks to Golden State.
Along with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, the three would win 4 championships, 6 Western Conference titles, and 518 games (6th most all-time, regular season & playoffs), including a historic season in 2016 where Golden State would have a 73-9 record but would fall short in the NBA Finals where the Warriors surrendered a 3-1 series lead.
Klay Thompson’s tenure can be seen as nothing short of fantastic. You think about performances where he made 14 threes in a game against the Chicago Bulls, a 52-point performance against the Kings where he scored a record 37 points in one quarter, 60 points on 11 dribbles against the Indiana Pacers, amongst others.
Thompson, 34, had his lowest-scoring output since the 2012-13 season, averaging 17.9 points. The season ended with a horrific 0-10 shooting performance against the Sacramento Kings in a Play-In game that the Warriors lost, missing the playoffs in the process.
As discussions regarding Thompson’s contract status went on and his inevitable free agency became more of a reality, the relationship between Klay Thompson and the Golden State Warriors became more and more fractious.
Klay Thompson sees Dallas as a place where he can compete for a 5th NBA championship for himself. He also had the Los Angeles Lakers as a potential destination. However, Dallas was more appealing to Thompson for a variety of reasons.
Klay Thompson joins a team that desperately needs another reliable scoring option, which showed throughout many points of Dallas’ playoff run when Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving went cold.
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