Klay Thompson free agency: How the Lakers, Mavericks and Clippers compare as Warriors star sets to leave

Klay Thompson and the Golden State Warriors don’t need to part ways, at least not from a practical, roster-building standpoint. Golden State will have nearly $34 million in cap room and $28 million in luxury tax room if they decide to waive Chris Paul. That’s enough money to bring back Thompson at a reasonable price, round out the roster, and make this deal happen without going through the tax. That approach would leave the Warriors with no hard cap space, and thus enough flexibility to make a big trade if they wanted to using Andrew Wiggins as the primary salary match. Arguably, the second-most valuable player in franchise history doesn’t do it. to have to go anywhere.

But, clearly, it’s no longer just a question of money. It’s a question of everything that comes with it. Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of The Athletic detailed everything that got Thompson and the Warriors to this point, and cited Golden State’s frequent attempts to replace Thompson via draft picks (Moses Moody and Brandin Podziemski) and even a interesting contract extension (Jordan Poole) as a source of friction. While The Athletic hasn’t talked about it in depth, it’s worth noting that Draymond Green got a four-year deal last offseason in a similar situation. Thompson, for more than a decade, was a consummate professional. Green, obviously, was not. His 2016 suspension during the Finals may have cost the Warriors a championship and the title of “Greatest Team Ever.” Green has been suspended several times since. He got into a fight with Kevin Durant during a game. He is, at this point in their career, a better player than Thompson. But it has to hurt a little that Green, in the midst of all this controversy, is being picked on when he isn’t.

The relationship between Thompson and the Warriors seems irreparably broken. Three teams are reportedly at the top of the list to pursue Thompson if this split goes through: the Lakers, Clippers and Mavericks. For now, the starting point for negotiations appears to be the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Dallas can do that easily after trading Tim Hardaway Jr. The Lakers can do that if LeBron James takes a pay cut as expected. The Clippers can do that if Paul George leaves as a free agent.

But can they go further? And how might Thompson play for each of them? Let’s take a look at these three main contenders and try to figure out if other teams could enter the mix.

the Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers appear intent on using the first apron as salary cap space, which opens doors outside of the mid-level exception as avenues to pay Thompson. The Lakers could potentially execute a sign-and-trade, for example, and have five players earning between $10 million and $20 million who could potentially return to the Warriors. The easiest to move here would be D’Angelo Russell. Would the Warriors want him back? Maybe. Maybe not. But this is an expiring $18.6 million contract, which would make him fairly easy to trade in a future trade if the Warriors just want a tradable salary that isn’t tied to a multi-year contract. The Lakers probably wouldn’t give up serious draft capital to get Thompson, but perhaps 2023 first-round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino would be on the table.

The situation here would be roughly similar to when another aging shooting legend joined LeBron James: Ray Allen in 2012. The Lakers can’t view Thompson as his old self. He is 34 years old and in decline. He can’t really defend the guards anymore. But closer to a 25-minute player than a 35-minute player, his shot remains an incredible weapon. The Lakers have lacked explosiveness throughout the James era. It helps to have someone on the roster who can get hot and score 30 on occasion. The Lakers should find a point-of-attack defense elsewhere (maybe with the mid-level exception if it is indeed a sign-and-trade), but offensively, put shooters around James has always been a formula for mutual success.

The Lakers represent a homecoming for Thompson. His father, Mychal Thompson, won championships playing with Magic Johnson in the 1980s. He is currently a radio announcer for the team, and Klay grew up in Southern California. If the money is equal, it seems like the Lakers would have a leg up on nostalgia alone.

Los Angeles Clippers

If the Clippers retain Paul George and James Harden, they are out of contention here. This would be a second-tier team unable to sign-and-trade or use a mid-level exception. With Harden widely expected to return, a George departure is the most likely path for the Clippers. Fortunately, George signing with another team would open the door for Thompson to become a Clipper if Los Angeles could structure George’s departure as a sign-and-trade. That would create a trade exception for them worth George’s new salary, which they could then use to absorb Thompson in a sign-and-trade deal that would come back to them.

This would limit the Clippers’ first-round pick, but the cost difference between Thompson and George would make it possible. They would just need George and his new team to cooperate, but they would have little incentive not to. Occasionally, teams in this situation will even throw in a second-round pick to entice the new team to help them create a trade exception.

A Thompson in good shape offensively here would, again, be simple. Harden is the leader. Kawhi Leonard also does quite a bit of shot creation. Placing Thompson as the shooter between them would be pretty easy. The defensive problems here would be more difficult to resolve. The Clippers don’t have a universal rim protector like Anthony Davis to clean up mistakes in the backcourt, and Harden doesn’t defend anyone at the point of attack. Leonard is obviously a great defender, but do the Clippers want to give him tough duties every night, knowing that George’s absence would also put more shot-creating duties on him? This would be a tougher problem for the Clippers to solve, especially with virtually no trade assets to work with. Maybe they could try to extract Gary Payton II in a trade with the Warriors, but Golden State has little incentive to help the Clippers. Ultimately, this team would be worse than last year’s Clippers, but it’s still a return to Los Angeles with a team that is capable of paying him a reasonable salary, so they can’t be ruled out.

Dallas Mavericks

Dallas just got rid of Tim Hardaway Jr. in order to open the mid-level non-taxpayer exception for Derrick Jones Jr. They could simply redirect it to Thompson, but that would not only mean underpaying him compared to what they seem to want, but also would mean losing Jones, their best perimeter defender. So it would make more sense to use the mid-level exception to keep Jones and then orchestrate a trade to grab Thompson.

It’s doable, but tricky. The Mavericks still have plenty of mid-sized salary, but how interested would the Warriors be in players like Maxi Kleber and Josh Green? They could help Golden State, but the Warriors seem to want to move away from multi-year deals. Maybe Dallas could entice them with draft capital, or maybe these players could be sent to a third team that could send the Warriors an expiring contract. There are a lot of moving parts here, but Dallas has ways to make it happen.

Dallas’ offense has been sputtering in the NBA Finals, with an offensive rating of 106.7. A big reason for that is its inability to generate good three-pointers. Thompson is used to playing in a movement offense that isn’t as heliocentric as Luka Doncic’s. It would take adjustments all around, but the idea of ​​taking a team that is already stellar on defense and has two elite creators and giving it a top shooter is a no-brainer. If Thompson’s goal is to win a fifth title, the Mavericks are probably his best chance of any of these teams.

Field

The mid-level non-taxpayer exception is a pretty reasonable price for a player as accomplished as Thompson. If that’s the line, it’s accessible to a lot of suitors. Take the Nuggets, for example. They’re likely to lose Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and they have about $8.3 million to spare for the first apron. If they could just recoup the roughly $9 million they owe Zeke Nnaji, they could potentially make Thompson a mid-level offer to replace Caldwell-Pope. Sure, moving Nnaji wouldn’t be easy, but the fact is that almost any winning team could potentially have a path here.

Oklahoma City still has about $28 million in cap space. The Thunder could throw some of that money at Thompson, or, while that’s a long shot, dangle the sub-$8 million mid-level exception in front of him if winning is his primary goal. They’d probably have to go the cap-space route to get him, but imagine giving the NBA’s best shooting team a Splash Brother. Good luck keeping that group.

Virtually every mid-tier team that doesn’t pay taxes is going to have some level of interest. If Thompson wants to go after Golden State, why not consider trading Luke Kennard to the rival Grizzlies, or maybe make the short trip to Sacramento, since the Kings considered taking a shot at Draymond Green last summer and appear to be looking to make a splash? Cleveland could use another three-point shooter. If the Magic or 76ers miss out on George, they’ll have cap space to exploit. Thompson may not get anything close to the max contract he came from, but he’s still a great shooter with championship pedigree. The field is pretty much any team that could reasonably create the money to pursue him.