![\"Klay](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2265349335-e1784478615217.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Klay Thompson #31 of the Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been two-and-a-half years since the Golden State Warriors<\/a> offered star guard Klay Thompson<\/a> a contract in the range of two years and $48 million, a contract he turned down because he\u2019d been expecting something closer to a max offer. That never came, and after struggling through the 2023-24 season, Thompson bolted the team he\u2019d helped to five championships.<\/p>\n But the free-agent waters were choppy for Thompson, and he wound up passing on an offer from the Lakers<\/a> to sign with the Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, who have him three years and $50 million. That turned out to be a disaster decision, too, when the Mavs traded away star Luka Doncic<\/a> and plunged into the kind of rebuild that the now 36-year-old Thompson did not sign up for.<\/p>\n Thompson is now in the final year of his contract, which pays him $17 million this season, and would like to be sent elsewhere. The Mavericks have tried to oblige, but there aren\u2019t many takers for Thompson, who has lost a step as a defender and a creator but still shot 38.3% from the 3-point line last season.<\/p>\n Klay Thompson Leaves Door Open on Warriors<\/p>\n So, now what? Well, if the Mavericks truly can\u2019t find a partner to which they can trade Thompson, the team will only be left to give Thompson a buyout, and considering his motivation to get back to a contending team, he would likely be willing to give up a chunk of salary to accomplish that goal. Those talks are ongoing, and there could soon be a resolution.<\/p>\n Thompson, of course, raised hopes of those in the Bay Area who miss him by telling a fan this weekend, \u201cNever say never<\/a>,\u201d when asked about a Warriors return. That\u2019s significant from the Warriors perspective, because any bitterness breakup between the team and Thompson mostly came from the player. Now, though, Thompson is open to a return.<\/p>\n \u2018Momentum for That\u2019<\/p>\n Could it happen? A lot of that depends on what happens with LeBron James<\/a>, as is the case with everything going on with the Warriors these days, and with the NBA<\/a> in general. Thompson or star wing DeMar DeRozan<\/a> (likely not both) are candidates to land in Miami if James goes there. The same goes for the Warriors.<\/p>\n If James goes to Cleveland, though, both DeRozan and Thompson probably would not follow. That would give the Warriors a clear shot at bringing back Thompson after a buyout, if the team wanted. And it should want Thompson back, especially if James is not there.<\/p>\n \u201cThere would be some momentum for that,\u201d one NBA executive said. \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna miss out on LeBron James and you\u2019re the Warriors, those guys are under some pressure because they really did not do anything else and the team is beat up with injuries (to Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody) and Stephen Curry<\/a> is another year older.<\/p>\n \u201cRolling out the red carpet for Klay Thompson, bygones be bygones and all of that, that would take some of the sting out.\u201d<\/p>\n It would not make the Warriors a contender, of course. But it would make them more fun.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Klay Thompson #31 of the Dallas Mavericks It\u2019s been two-and-a-half years since the Golden State Warriors offered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-810771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}