It wasn\u2019t supposed to end this way.<\/p>\n
Klay Thompson joined the Dallas Mavericks two summers ago with the intention of winning a rare fifth championship with a cast of characters highlighted by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.<\/p>\n
Instead, Thompson\u2019s\u00a0brief tenure with the Mavericks was marred by the most shocking trade in NBA history, teamwide injury misfortune, two seasons without a playoff appearance and the anticlimactic buyout agreement the team announced Friday. The Miami Heat are expected to sign Thompson once he clears waivers, according to an\u00a0ESPN report.<\/p>\n
Thompson appeared in 141 games (80 starts) in his two seasons with Dallas and averaged 12.9 points on 40.3% shooting from the field and 38.7% from three. He was set to make $17.5 million in 2026-27, the final season of a three-year deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cKlay is one of the great players and competitors of his generation, and we are grateful for everything he brought to the Mavericks organization,\u201d Mavericks president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have tremendous respect for\u00a0Klay and all that he has accomplished throughout his career, and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mavericks acquired Thompson from the Golden State Warriors in a blockbuster six-team trade during the summer of 2024, less than one month removed from their first NBA Finals appearance in 13 years. He was an unrestricted free agent at the time, but the teams negotiated a sign and trade, making Thompson the most decorated\u00a0offseason addition in franchise history.<\/p>\n
Former Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison infamously said the team was \u201ca Klay away\u201d from winning a championship after his addition, but Harrison made a drastic pivot by trading Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis in February 2025. One month later, Irving suffered a torn ACL that sidelined him for the rest of that season and the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n
Upon Harrison\u2019s abrupt firing and Davis being dealt to the Washington Wizards, the Mavericks entered a rebuild centered around 19-year-old Cooper\u00a0Flagg. When former coach Jason\u00a0Kidd asked Thompson to come off the bench, he\u00a0embraced the role with a career-high 61 games as a reserve.<\/p>\n
Despite the tumultuous and unpredictable circumstances, Thompson remained a consummate professional. The veteran sharpshooter achieved several milestones, including eclipsing Damian\u00a0Lillard for fourth place on the NBA\u2019s all-time 3-pointers list last season after passing his childhood idol\u00a0Reggie Miller in his first year in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Thompson is one of only five players to connect on at least 2,800 triples in his career, sitting at 2,899. He made at least 200 threes in both of his seasons in Dallas. He and his former teammate Stephen Curry are the only players in NBA history to record at least 10 seasons with 200 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
Thompson\u2019s future in Dallas had been uncertain since a news conference at the end of the season, when he was asked if he anticipates being back with the Mavericks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m under contract so I do, but I\u2019ve definitely learned in my time in Dallas that things can change on a dime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t supposed to end this way. Klay Thompson joined the Dallas Mavericks two summers ago with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1638,102,104,103,99750],"class_list":["post-413253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-brief","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-klay-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}