As his former team fight to secure a top six spot in the Western Conference, Golden State Warriors legend Klay Thompson will once again be involved in the 9 vs. 10 game of the NBA's Play-In Tournament.
Thompson will have nightmares of his last game in a Warrior jersey where he went scoreless and shot 0-of-10 in their elimination to the Sacramento Kings a year ago. He'll look to atone for that when he faces the Kings again next week, yet this time as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.
However, whether Thompson gets the opportunity to do that is a different question entirely. Even with all the injuries the Mavericks have faced over the second-half of the season, Thompson's minutes have been scaled down in an interesting ploy from head coach Jason Kidd.
Klay Thompson may be facing a "bleak" future with the Mavericks
The 5x All-Star played just 19 minutes in Friday's win over the Toronto Raptors, and while the blowout 124-102 victory was a factor in that, the likes of Anthony Davis, Naji Marshall and P.J. Washington all saw at least 27 minutes.
Thompson has now played more than 30 minutes just once in his last 10 games, and subsequently has only one game of 18 points or more in the same period. FanSided's Maxwell Ogden now believes Thompson's future with the Mavericks is under some question, pointing to the emergence of the likes of Marshall, Jaden Hardy and Max Christie as guys who play a similar position.
"Thompson has the ability to change a narrative in the blink of an eye, but with two years and $34,126,984 remaining on his contract, the future of his Mavericks tenure is bleak," Ogden wrote.
That's a fairly damning statement of where Thompson is at, yet Dallas may only have themselves to blame for this current predicament. The 35-year-old joined the Mavericks to be an elite catch-and-shoot threat playing alongside Luka Doncic, only for the franchise to stunningly trade the young superstar before the deadline. Combine that with Kyrie Irving tearing his ACL in a devastating injury shortly after, and now the Mavericks are bereft of any real playmaking to set up good looks for Thompson.
Looking back in retrospect and the 4x champion would have been better remaining with the Warriors, or accepting a deal from the Los Angeles Lakers who he ironically turned down in favor of joining Doncic in Dallas, only for the Slovenian to now be in L.A.
Thompson could now find himself in trade scenarios this offseason if Ogden's comments are anything to go by, but don't expect a reunion with the Warriors to be fully on the table just yet.