There has already been chatter, from ESPN’s Shams Charania, that Dallas would be willing to trade away star guard Klay Thompson, the player they lured from Golden State after talks on a new contract with the team broke down. That, naturally, will have piqued the interest of the Lakers.
It was less than a year-and-half ago, after all, that the Lakers nearly won the sweepstakes for Thompson’s services, offering him a significantly better package–four years and $80 million–than the one he eventually took from the Mavericks, which was three years for $50 million.
But Thompson, in a cruel twist of fate, picked the Mavericks because he wanted to compete for a championship alongside Luka Doncic. Only now, a bit more than a year after his Dallas debut, Doncic is in Los Angeles with the 18-7 Lakers while Thompson’s Mavericks are at 10-17 and looking to trade away veteran pieces while they still can.
Now, a new report from ESPN confirms that the Mavericks are, indeed exploring a trade for Thompson.
Lakers Could Revisit Klay Thompson Deal
That means the Lakers could still get their man, the one who got away from 2024. And Thompson probably won’t cost much, asset-wise. His effective field-goal percentage has dropped each of the past four seasons, from .556 in 2022-23 to just .504 this year. His scoring has dropped, too, from 21.9 points down to just 11.1 this season.
The one thing that has been going up, though, is his age: Thompson will be 36 in February.
As the Lakers seek a solution to their defensive woes, hoping to find a quality NBA shooter who can defend both guard spots, Thompson would seem to make some sense. Except that this year, Thompson has shown he is simply not the same player he was on either end.
Again, that will drive down the price. But Thompson is still signed for next season at $17.5 million, and bringing him in now would most certainly go against the Lakers’ desire to keep as much cap space open as possible next summer, in hopes of perhaps making a star-caliber addition.
Would the Lakers Still Have Interest?
If Thompson is traded, and if he has any say in where he goes, the Lakers would likely be his top choice. But it’s unlikely that the Mavericks will let him pick his own destination.
It was no secret how close Thompson came to playing for the Lakers, where his dad, Mychal Thompson, played from 1987-91. After he picked the Mavericks, Mychal Thompson said, “I’m really disappointed. I was hoping, as you can assess, that he would be a Laker. And it was close. It came down to the Lakers and the Mavs, but the Mavs won out. But you know me, I was hoping and praying he’d finish his career with the Lakers.”
At Bleacher Report, analyst Mike Chiari wrote on Thursday, “The Los Angeles Lakers pursued Thompson until he decided to sign with the Mavericks, and if they can make the salaries work, they are perhaps the most logical landing spot for him.”
The Lakers certainly wanted Thompson. There’s logic to still wanting him. But with his salary for next season and his rough start to this season, that desire might have already passed.
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