The Miami Heat are all-in on Operation Floor Spacing.
Miami is “desperate” to land Dallas Mavericks swingman Klay Thompson, veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reported this week during an appearance on the “DLLS Sports” podcast. Stein added though that the Heat would like to sign Thompson as a free agent while the Mavericks would instead prefer to trade him.
The 36-year-old Thompson has been with Dallas for the last two seasons. But especially after a nightmare 26-56 year for the Mavericks in which Thompson averaged career lows across the board (11.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game), the two sides are expected to go their separate ways before long.
Thompson, a five-time NBA All-Star and four-time NBA champion, is entering the final year of his contract next season at $17.5 million. While that would make Thompson somewhat easy to potentially buy out, it is still early enough in the year that Dallas has incentive to hold onto him as a potential trade chip.
As for the Heat, they have been heavily rumored as a possible landing spot for Thompson for the last several weeks, particularly with a need to surround their new Giannis Antetokounmpo-Bam Adebayo pairing with shooters. But Miami’s depth was shredded by the addition of Antetokounmpo, meaning that they should hold onto the few young assets they have left (e.g. Nikola Jovic and Pelle Larsson) instead of trading them for Thompson.
The guard options for the Heat are dwindling a little bit after Bradley Beal signed elsewhere in free agency and Russell Westbrook decided to retire. But if they do want to successfully land Thompson, it appears that Miami will have to win a staring contest of sorts against the Mavericks.
