The Golden State Warriors and Klay Thompson did not part on the best of terms. He left the franchise to chase respect, money and a championship -- and things have fallen apart around him since he left. He must be realizing the grave mistake he made in leaving the Warriors.
The Dallas Mavericks team that Thompson joined was coming off of a run to the NBA Finals. Luka Doncic was a Top-5 player in the league and a dynamic passer, the kind of player that Thompson should thrive next to. Everyone except perhaps Klay understood that he was no longer the same player that he once was, but in Dallas he expected to have the ecosystem to thrive. He was joining a contender and reasonably expected to help them compete for a title, just as he did in Golden State.
The truth has been a bitter pill for Klay to swallow. The Mavericks, it has since been revealed, were being run by someone who had no idea what they were doing. Nico Harrison not only concluded that the best thing for the franchise was trading away Luka Doncic, but that he should do so for a paltry and short-term return.
Soon after Doncic was traded away, Kyrie Irving tore his ACL. Suddenly, the Mavericks went from two star point guards to zero, and the entire trajectory for the team change. Thompson wasn't being set up by dynamic creators, but rather forced to try to create his own shot on a team of massive defense-first non-creators. That is kryptonite to maximizing Thompson's skillset.
This season the Mavericks only gave a head nod to addressing their creation issues, signing journeyman point guard D'Angelo Russell, and otherwise doubled down on size. They started the season with rookie power forward Cooper Flagg at point guard and two centers sharing the court. Things dissolved disastrously from there, and the Mavericks ended up firing Nico Harrison and are on the precipice of selling off their veteran pieces.
Things are falling apart for Klay Thompson
That includes Klay Thompson, who has since lost his starting job and is having the worst season of his career. He is shooting 35 percent from deep and a ghastly 41.3 percent from 2-point range, both career lows. Dallas is better on offense and defense when Thompson is out of the game. And as the Mavericks ponder existential questions about their direction as a team, they are expected to shop Klay Thompson to other interested teams.
Not only did Thompson not find the championship he was seeking, he is being set up to fail on an ill-fitting roster that has to make huge strides just to make the Play-In Tournament. He also has lost control of his fate, with the team that was once excited to sign him is now resigned to trading him.
Would things have been better if he had stayed on the Warriors? Their fate would have been different, as his departure set in motion a string of transactions that brought Jimmy Butler to town. Yet one thing the Warriors haven't done is completely fall apart, or trade Stephen Curry in the middle of the night; they have a baseline level of competency.
Klay may not be playing better on the Warriors, but he would be in the system that made him a Hall of Famer and with savvy passers to set him up. The humble pie was still there, but perhaps it wouldn't taste so bitter. And while the Warriors are a longshot to make any noise in the playoffs, they at least are committed to trying to win, something the Mavericks aren't sure about anymore.
Leaving the Warriors was a difficult decision for Klay, and whether or not things could have been patched up, one thing is clear: leaving for the Mavericks was a grave mistake, one from whom his career may never recover.