The forgotten man in Dallas may be getting a lifeline out of town.
The Dallas Mavericks would prefer to trade veteran sharpshooter Klay Thompson this offseason, longtime NBA writer Marc Stein reported this week. Stein also adds that the Miami Heat are one of the teams hoping that Thompson becomes available soon, whether via a trade or via a buyout later down the road.
Thompson, now 36 years old, receives little press these days for his work on the court and has more so been making headlines for his drama off it. That makes sense too given Thompson’s steadily dipping productivity in recent years.
Last season for Dallas, Thompson had a career-worst performance. He averaged 11.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game on 39/38/77 shooting splits, all of which were the lowest tallies of his entire NBA career.
As such, Thompson’s trade value is pretty close to absolute zero at this point. The only saving grace may be that Thompson is entering the final year of his contract next year at $17.5 million, making him slightly easier to move than he would have been at this time last summer.
The Heat, meanwhile, do need shooters on the cheap to surround their new Giannis Antetokounmpo-Bam Adebayo core with. They already signed one former Mavericks sniper a couple weeks ago and will now be monitoring Thompson’s situation closely to see what becomes of him in Dallas.
