NBA champion suggests new venture for Warriors legend could be a disaster

While Golden State Warriors fans will clearly have a primary focus on their own team next season, for many there will also be one eye on the Dallas Mavericks and how Klay Thompson adjusts to his new venture away from the Bay.

Seeing Thompson in a different jersey will be weird, let alone playing alongside Luka Doncic and a noted former rival in Kyrie Irving. The Mavericks are coming off a trip to the NBA Finals where they were comfortably beaten by the Boston Celtics, and are now hoping Thompson could prove the missing ingredient to help them go one step further.

Kendrick Perkins suggests that Klay Thompson's venture from the Warriors to the Mavericks could be a disaster

Most believe Dallas will be a contender in the Western Conference again, which really only makes Thompson's arrival more intriguing. However, one analyst that's less sold on the Mavericks is Kendrick Perkins, with the 2009 NBA champion labelling them as the team most at risk of collapse on an episode of 'NBA Today' earlier this week.

Perkins also took aim at Thompson's addition, questioning if the 34-year-old "is really gonna turn back the hands of time?" The answer to that is almost assuredly no, but that doesn't mean Thompson can't be an incredibly productive and valuable player in Dallas.

The more important question is whether Thompson is willing to accept a smaller offensive role? It's something he struggled with at times with the Warriors last season, undoubtedly induced by the pressures of trying to return to his best pre-injury self.

The 5x All-Star may have sought a new environment to relieve himself of that pressure, and fair enough too. But now he'll have a different pressure -- trying to add a new dimension to a team that just made the Finals.

If the Mavericks do collapse in a way Perkins says they're at risk of, Thompson is sure to come under some scrutiny and this time without the backdrop of being a franchise legend and the leeway that history often provides.

From a Warriors perspective, while those within the organization surely wish Thompson the best, they'll want the Mavericks to collapse to some degree. Most consider Golden State will be around the play-in range again, which means they'll need a combination of their own improvement, and other teams above them to fall, in order to have any chance of producing a deep playoff run in 2025.