Next steps for the Warriors after Klay Thompson’s Mavericks deal 🔮 | NBA Today

Next steps for the Warriors after Klay Thompson’s Mavericks deal 🔮 | NBA Today

but with the end of a dynasty because Klay Thompson has agreed to a three-year $50 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks ending his historic 13-year run with the four-time champion Golden State Warriors it’s according to our W now LeBron James called Thompson right when free agency opened in an attempt to bring the 34y old to LA but Thompson Will instead be teaming up with Luca donic and Kyrie Irving this is the dismantling of one of the alltime great trios in basketball W is here to make sense of it all with us so w what led clay to leaving Golden State and ultimately Landing here in Dallas well I think everybody could see for really most of the past year that Klay Thompson was very likely playing his final season in Golden State and and certainly nothing changed at the end of the season between he and the organization where you ever got a sense this was anything but the end and I think what really uh energized Klay Thompson I’m told was just how aggressive Dallas was they made it clear to him that he was their number one Target in free agency and you know Klay Thompson had watched the Mavs in the playoffs and really saw with that team where he could help um the way he’d fit in there they certainly you know it’s a team that certainly could use some shooting uh and the idea of playing with Luca donic Kyrie Irving um it it made a lot of sense to him the Lakers were intriguing to uh uh Klay Thompson obviously his dad plays there he lives in La he grew up around it but I think financially certain certainly the difference between Texas and California played a part in it uh you know again three years $50 million uh you know and he spent last night uh with his agent Greg Lawrence uh Nico Harrison Michael Finley the Dallas front office they were over at the bottle linen Hermosa which is near uh Klay Thompson’s home a restaurant over there that he frequents and spent a lot of time talking about what it would look like and went to bed last night uh while intrigued with the Lakers and all that would present itself for him his history there uh he felt really drawn to the Mavs and when he woke up this morning he told his agent let let’s get the deal done with Dallas wow and so now we see Klay Thompson on his way to Dallas wge thank you so very much we’re going to dive into what all of this means for Los Angeles how they lost out how much more dangerous this makes Dallas but I just want to pause here for for one second if we could because I think we all expected that this would come but this is the end of a dynasty it’s still shocking to see it Klay Thompson he was synonymous with the Bay Area right I mean when Oakland was a punchline and the warriors were kind of the laughing stock essentially toiling at the bottom of the league it was Thompson and Draymond Green and ultimately Steph Curry who changed all of that so Zach can you just help us contextualize how seismic this move is I mean it’s not as seismic today given the state of everything but this is the end of something magical in basketball these three guys came together and Curry is the head of it no question but they resuscitated a franchise they made it into a dynasty and they played a style that nobody else played and Clay was part of that he was as ferocious don’t don’t let the SoCal laidback Captain Clay on the water fool you this dude is an absolute killer as ferocious a competitor as there is in the league Rod Adams the sage of Golden State’s coaching staff once told me he loses the way you want a player to lose it strikes him in the heart we don’t need to go over the big moments the big the big shots there are so many of them but the Splash Brothers are are no more they’re separated and that Ovation when he comes back is going to be thunderous and long and honestly like it’s a little bit sad that it ended acrimoniously I think everybody needs to look in the mirror including the Golden State brass and ask themselves how did we let it get to this point leaving is one thing leaving on semi bad terms is is not how this should have ended but was it magical was it magical okay it was magical but the Warriors ain’t treated like it was magical they had a golden opportunity to show the rest of the league how you treat a veteran on his on his way out especially a guy that then hung banners for banners in that Arena and they treated him like they basically was The Five Heartbeats they treated him like Ed Edd K Jr like an outcaster look Klay Thompson went there on threeyear 50 million what what did uh golden to State offer him 2ear 48 so basically it was the same money right this was personal for Klay Thompson why he left he felt like he was disrespected the entire season the Warriors did nothing nothing right to make him feel right that’s not how you treat a veteran a guy that didn’t hunk banners I had the pleasure of being with Clay his rookie year and then the next year that’s when they brought in Draymond that’s when they brought in Harrison Barnes that’s when Steph took off to that another level for me watching him grow into a dominant player and seeing how much he meant to the franchise the organizations but I’ve seen this before I saw when Jason kid left New Jersey he turned the franchise around and they were like uh you’re on your end we don’t know what we want to do and guess where he ended up he ended up in Dallas with still left in the tank and won another championship so we see this often I will say this about clay the Warriors look really bad right now say what you want about a competitor who feels like he’s disrespected and Clay how been up and down at the end of the day this looks far worse on the Golden State Warriors for not being able to get a guy that’s still averaging 18 at 39% shooting you’re not able to bring him back with really we’re not seeing much of a plan around it so to perks Point Brian I mean what does it mean that clay ultimately chose to go with the Dallas Mavericks versus the Lakers and ultimately the Warriors means he’s angry yeah he’s angry um things a lot of times that badly otherwise they wouldn’t end that’s a famous saying for a reason you know the the warriors were in Chicago this last year when the Bulls were celebrating the I don’t know whatever year it was and and ring of Jerry Krauss who’s passed away got booed if you remember and I remember you know Steve Kerr was out there when it happened and I remember thinking like this is sort of a warning to the Warriors don’t when you come together in 15 or 20 years don’t get booed because but it’s hard it’s hard to end things this way and look the reason that they stopped playing him is because he wasn’t getting it done um the reason that they only offered him what yeah I’m thinking of the O for 10 in the the playing game all he they felt that the other players were better options well no let me let me also say this really quickly I I’ve never shared this before out of respect to Clay I this is on Christmas Day this past year of this past year I get off to El and I see clay I’m oh clay what’s up oh what’s up I’m like hey man keep your mentals right he’s like man tell him to pay me my money this was on Christmas day so on Christmas Day a guy that had won four championships and I don’t give a damn what anybody says how much money they gave go him over the years because he turned their franchise around that franchise is worth billions of dollars not just because of Steph it’s also because of clay they changed the game it wasn’t just Steph changing the game it was Stephen Clay in that back court so I say this he has a right to be mad he bet on himself yes he said I don’t want the two years 48 million he bet on himself and then he didn’t have a good year but but that’s fine that’s F you can have hundreds of millions and have a Bad Year and be like you know what that what that does that means if you’re going to treat me this way I’m going to go someplace else and now the Warriors are left and Clay’s in a much better situation Warriors are he for nothing Walk For Nothing almost nothing they got two second round picks that’s nothing but here’s the thing even clay bad year was better than a lot of guys great year I agree I agree with that and they were willing to pay him $24 million a year yeah but but but Wendy it goes back to the point of what he watch other guys get right when you go back to watching Draymond Green if you go look at when he got his 100 million his stat line wasn’t eye candy it damn sure wasn’t attractive it perfect year yeah so it was almost as if you know they were paying him for what he done in the past and not what he was going to be able to offer in the future clay like well damn I was part of this and I helped build this why I’m not getting the same respect yeah he had reasons to turn it down I’m not saying he had his reasons to turn it down but then he was playing in a situation where they literally said we’re going to take you out to finish games we’re going to take you out the starting lineup That was that happened I think timing is important here um so Wiggins gets his new deal and Clay’s looking around at all this Wiggins gets his new deal after they win the title and after he plays the best basketball of his life Draymond gets his new deal a year later after in the second round the difference is he’s an unrestricted free agent it’s a Now or Never kind of thing clay had time left I’m not saying it’s right and and like if you’re clay you helped make this team what it is and the bitterness is completely Justified but at the end of the day the Golden State Warriors they have to be thinking okay what’s the best way to maximize the end of Steph Curry’s career and I guess they have decided that Klay Thompson is no longer a part of that picture so Brian can the Warriors still put a contender around Steph Curry because that’s what I keep waiting to see the other free agent big names they have come and gone and the warriors were not a part of those plans either well they signed the Anthony Melton today which if he’s healthy is a is a quality signing why you looking at that I’m sorry sorry to big if well I mean it’s they they they say they they believe that Brandon psky will improve they believe that Moses Moody will prove they believe that the DeAnthony mton will give them a good lift and they’re in talks on Lowry Markin and if they don’t get Lowry Mark and they’ll wait and try to do something else down the line like I I think I don’t think if they resign clay all of a sudden I’d be like well they they’ll be number three in the west I mean they they are no longer a high competitive team in the Western Conference that was proven and I I think that is still the case there’s always going to be things that we don’t know about this negotiation obviously it almost looks like clay took less money or or to to go someplace else what does that say about the Golden State Warriors and for for me when I look at this franchise was Clay should Klay have made all of this money and still been that big portion of whatever they were doing no he needed a reduced role but you still have to pay him to the point Rod Thorne once told me he goes you know what I always felt that if I underpaid a player that was going to be the energy that he always gave me going into something so I’d rather give him a little bit more than he deserves so he knows that I I want him here and that he’s my guy that was always Rob Thor’s mindset and he drafted Michael Jordan right but we’re still going back to okay the Klay Thompson mindset which is is Justified I’m just trying to push this forward a little bit and I I can’t it seems like there’s no answer for why gold they are so irrelevant right now in the G big things they’re they’re relevant they’re no team with Steph Curry is irrelevant no they’re they’re irrelevant from the standpoint of right now in the west they would be the seventh best team in the league they’re the 12 best team this is what happens this is how it ends great teams get old and they get mediocre or whatever and the Warriors are still a good team in the west there’s nothing wrong with that and they had their chance with the James wisman pick to to bridge to the next era and this was always the most likely outcome that the young guys aren’t ready in time for the old guys and now they’re left here this is just what happens boy Bob Myers if you watching he look like J Cole right now Bob Myers look like J Cole he just sitting at home like oh time like we’re talking about Lor Lori marketing but does he have a better ceiling than Jonathan kaminga I don’t believe so I think Jonathan kaminga could really become a real All-Star caliber player I don’t think they want to trade kaminga well you might have to well Lori I think the 2022 championship and winning that Championship was improbable in so many ways that it extended us feeling the way that we feel about the Golden State Warriors Mike Breen’s called The Embers of Dynasty still burning in a way that I don’t think anybody expected if if their window hadn’t kind of reopened in that moment I don’t know if we’d be having the same conversation but since we’re talking about how feel we all I felt we all want the Feelgood ending and we all think we should have it it already happened that was it that title well I I’m just going to see if we can bring in Bobby Marks here if there’s anything that the Golden State Warriors can do because Clay’s Gone Chris Paul we have mentioned yet both gone Chris Paul headed to the San Antonio Spurs so what Avenues do the Warriors have if any cuz these guys don’t seem to see a whole lot Bobby come on Bobby show us something I think you hit it right on the head Malika you said you got to maximize Steph Curry’s window right he’s got two years left on his contract he’s extension eligible this off season for one more year if anything out of this their books are clean okay $157 million in salary luxury tax is 171 they have the flexibility to go out and make that one more big swing they’ve got four first round picks to trade as you can see the big question is going to be they’re young players kaminga Moody pensi okay kaminga and Moody are extension eligible this offseason here do you reward both players here so you have the contracts to go out and make a deal when that next disgruntled or may maybe a player like marke him comes available here you can go out and do that it’s just a matter of when is that going to be right and I don’t know that giving up Klay Thompson is you in a when it’s going to be type of scenario for Golden St state [Music]

Next steps for the Warriors after Klay Thompson’s Mavericks deal 🔮 | NBA Today

On the NBA Today Free Agency Special, the crew discusses the 3-year/$50 million deal between Klay Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks.

0:00 Woj’s details on Thompson
4:49 Richard Jefferson was teammates with Klay
8:50 Can the Warriors still contend?
12:15 Bobby Marks on the Warriors’ roster

#ESPN #NBA #NBAToday

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