The Dallas Mavericks took an NBA finalist team and made it a good bit better this offseason by adding former NBA champion Klay Thompson from the Golden State Warriors. While Thompson is not the player he was during the Warriors' dynastic years in the 2010s, he remains one of the elite three point marksmen in the league today and figures to add some scoring punch to a Mavericks team that was sorely missing just that during the NBA Finals.
Recently, the Mavericks' official team account on X, formerly Twitter, released a video of the future Hall of Famer getting some shots up at the team's practice facility.
In the video, Thompson can be seen wearing the headband he has donned with the Warriors the past couple of years and using the same silky smooth shooting stroke that has agonized opponents for well over a decade in the NBA.
Thompson's departure from the Bay Area was jarring to say the least, and it will be quite a scene when the Mavericks visit the Warriors for the first time in the 2024-25 NBA season this November.
What is the Mavericks' ceiling in 2024-25?
The Mavericks in theory have all of the pieces they need to make another deep playoff run this year. Luka Doncic is just now theoretically entering the prime years of his career, and Kyrie Irving (when he isn't playing against the Boston Celtics) remains one of the most elite isolation scorers the game has ever seen, even well past the age of 30 now.
Thompson figures to add another dimension to a Mavericks offense that got very stagnant in their NBA Finals loss to the Celtics, and replacing Derrick Jones' sporadic three-point shooting with Thompson's marksmanship will go a long way in making the Dallas offense that much more potent.
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Of course, at this point in his career, Thompson is a negative at the defensive end of the floor, an area where he thrived before suffering back to back devastating leg injuries in 2019 and 2020. That shortcoming will have to be worked around for a Mavericks team that already has to navigate the defensive weaknesses of both Doncic and Irving.
Still, while they're still clearly a tier (or two) below the Celtics, there's no reason why the Mavericks shouldn't once again be among the Western Conference's elite this season.
Dallas is slated to get their season underway on October 23 with a date vs the San Antonio Spurs.
