Klay Thompson agreed to a three-year contract with the Mavericks on Monday, giving them improved perimeter shooting and adding as much championship experience as they could get outside of LeBron James to bolster their post-NBA Finals lineup. The on-court fit is obvious; Luka Doncic is a virtuoso with the ball in his hands and will generate some of the most open shots Thompson has ever seen (that alone is a big deal). But the basketball aspect of this acquisition isn’t what makes it so important. Dallas has signed perfect fits before, most recently with Naji Marshall on Sunday. The reason Klay Thompson’s addition is so great is because he really wanted to be here.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Thompson took a pay cut to join the Mavericks and take advantage of the “state tax differential” in an attempt to win his “fifth championship.” The Mavericks have long been outbid by bigger markets and bigger influencers for big-name players. Take the infamous DeAndre Jordan fiasco for example. Jordan signed with the Mavericks at the peak of his career, only to be recalled to Los Angeles, where he spent the rest of his prime. Just a few years earlier, Dallas had lost out on All-Star center Dwight Howard, who instead decided to move his talents to Houston. As recently as 2020, the Mavericks still had dreams of signing MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, but ended up losing other useful free agents while waiting for a big name player who never left the team.
Dallas’ history is synonymous with “all rumors, never announcements.” Rumors circulated with every tweet about free agency, but they rarely gained traction. But things started to change when they made the move to hire Nico Harrison as their new general manager after a complete system cleanup in the summer of 2021. The connections Harrison brought were obvious. He’s a high-ranking official at Nike, and many NBA players are Nike athletes. His previous job was getting players to represent their brand, so he has plenty of experience selling products. He also had to identify the right people to sell shoe contracts, so those skills were a perfect fit for an NBA general manager. He’s proven himself multiple times in trades over the past three years, and his most recent trade deadline portfolio led the Mavericks to their third Finals appearance in franchise history. Combined with his excellent ability to sign impactful players such as Dante Exum and Derrick Jones Jr., Harrison completely upended the Mavericks’ reputation in a fraction of the time it had taken to build it up.
Signing Thompson means a lot of things. First, it sets a precedent for players in future free agency periods. Rumors and tweets will no longer be filled with skepticism, but triumphant confirmation that Dallas is a place to be. Second, it negates all the uninformed speculation that players don’t want to play with Luka Doncic. If four-time champion Klay Thompson willingly took a pay cut on his last big contract to have a chance at a championship, there is no truth to the claim that championship players don’t want to be on the court with Doncic. And finally, it signifies a new era for Dallas. Not only are the Mavericks back to winning ways, but they are reinvigorated with a new outlook on outside players. No state income tax has always been a selling point, and now the Mavericks have the right man to make that pitch. Thompson may be the first high-profile star the Mavericks have pursued, but he certainly won’t be the last. Suffice it to say, the Mavericks are a destination for free agents.
