FIRST TAKE | “A New Era in Dallas” – Stephen A.: Klay Thompson will bring title hopes to Mavericks

FIRST TAKE | “A New Era in Dallas” – Stephen A.: Klay Thompson will bring title hopes to Mavericks

Klay Thompson wasn’t just a great shooter at Golden State he was an entire Vibe he leaves fellow Splash Brothers Steph Curry and the Warriors for a new chapter in his career after agreeing to a three-year $50 million contract with the Mavericks Michelle steel has more on the start of a new era in tonight’s sports center report new number who’s this Klay Thompson making the move official showing off his new number 31 Jersey while his new teammate will be wearing the familiar number 11 well uh Kyrie took my number so I was pretty no I’m just kidding after 13 years with the Warriors Thompson has embraced a new outlook as he embarks on the next chapter sometimes change just can spur greatness and a new change of scenery can do do wonders and I’m very grateful for my time at uh Golden State but um I just felt like you know moving on could just re-energize me and do something special for the rest of my career it does suck leaving losing clay and there’s no no two ways around it so um you have to be able to celebrate what we accomplished but then be able to move on at Team USA camp this week Steph Curry was still wrapping his mind around the loss of a core member of the Golden State Dynasty along with Draymond Green the Warriors big three have won four championships and played in six finals in their decade plus together but when it became clear contract negotiation were not going to go his way Thompson knew his time was up Dallas was so attractive because of the young players they have the style of play when I was watching the playoffs and I’m watching the Mavs you know make a run for the championship I just saw myself fitting in really well with this team and the personnel and um they look like they have fun playing with each other and they play for each other and that was very attractive for me and that’s really all I needed to see and there’s mutual interest there and that’s why I’m here and this former Splash brother says he’s zeroed in on one thing winning I’m not really into breaking more shooting records I just want to win at this point that’s that’s what that’s what I learned in Golden State like everyone’s got to make sacrifices to win at the highest level and I’ll make sacrifices for the team but as long as we play winning basketball that’s that’s all that matters Thompson might not get to wear number 11 in Dallas but no one for the time being will be wearing number 11 at Golden State the team recently announcing they will be retiring his number whenever his career ends now if it’s up to him that will not be anytime soon saying there’s a lot of good basketball left in the tank I’m Michelle steel ESPN Michelle thank you according to ESPN bet the Mavericks are 4 to one to repeat as Western Conference Champs TI with the Timberwolves for the third shortest odds the nuggets and thunder seen in the history of the NBA um who by the way spent the second half of this season averaging uh about 20 points or so 45% shooting from the field 41% shooting from three-point range since the allstar break which more than 90% of the league couldn’t do on their best days that same Klay Thompson is departing from the Golden State Warriors to join the Dallas Mavericks they worked out a sign and trade deal with the warriors uh Klay Thompson’s going to get about $50 million over three years uh via a sign and trade deal that will also see the Mavericks sending Josh Green to the Charlotte Hornets um however TNT sports analyst Chris Haynes says golden state is still work and through details with Dallas and the deal is not close at this point um various other people are reporting on this story bottom line is Klay Thompson’s lead I’m sad but it was necessary kaminga has gotten better paj jimsky the rookie from last year has gotten better Steph Curry is still playing like a superstar Draymond Green you gave a 100 million to he deserves every penny and um Clay is not what he was defensively he’s not what he was offensively but I still am not giving up on him and what he can bring to the table and what he can do from what I’m being told um Klay Thompson wanted to leave he thought it was time that makes sense to me and the reason why that makes sense to me is because at the beginning of the year a few months ago rather the golden State Warriors offered Klay Thompson two years $48 million that’s 24 million a year Klay Thompson just settled for a little over 16 and a half for three years that doesn’t make sense to me I mean if you’re going to hold out and you feel that adamant about it or whatever I understand if it was an extra 15 to 20 million but you’re going to depart from Golden State for just $2 million more in total and that’s over a threee span instead of a twoyear span I don’t quite understand that but I will say this it does make sense that clay wanted to leave according to what I’m hearing because why would you leave Golden State for that and by the way California 14.4% state income taxes federal is about 39% we get all of that um in the case of Dallas he’s in Texas so there’s no state income taxes in Texas plus you have Kyrie Irving and Luca donic as your as your teammates so we understand what that’s about and major props to Nico Harrison the president of basketball operations and Jason kid for acquiring um Klay Thompson because Dallas was like second in the league in three-point attempts but like 13 in the league and field goal percentages made okay so we get that the Lakers obviously wanted Klay Thompson LeBron obviously was willing to take a pay cut according to Rich Paul his agent just to make sure that they got a guy like Klay Thompson on board but at the end of the day if you are Klay Thompson you’re looking at staying in the state of California you’re looking at the fact that the income tax rate is still applicable there too at 14.4% you’re looking at the fact that the Lakers while they were like top 10 in three-point shooting percentage they were 28th in three-pointers attempted so you might be wondering whether or not you was going to get the ball from an Anthony Davis or Lebron James enough as you know when you just oppose that to what transpired and go the state then we also got to take into consideration that it is the Lakers which is a rivalry for the Warriors and Klay Thompson just may not have wanted to go to the Los Angeles Lakers he may have wanted to go somewhere other than Los Angeles so I always thought it would be the Lakers if he wasn’t what Golden State I prayed I wish that it was the Knicks but not as much once I got Mel Bridges but in the end when you look at Dallas um they are a better team than the Los Angeles Lakers at this particular moment Klay Thompson’s not making anybody worse he’s only going to make you better um they lost Derek Jones Jr but again he was a guy that couldn’t generate any offense for you clay can and Clay can put the ball in the hole in a very prolific fashion when he gets hot and when that stroke starts working and so you combine that with PJ Washington with Gafford with Lively and what have you Dallas is no joke I understand it why clay made the move I’m sad that it had to happen uh but these things happen in the world of professional sports that’s just the way that it goes that just the way that it goes it’s be interesting to see what happens with golden state now and I’m really interested in seeing who’s going toing clay four-time Champion one of the best Shooters in league history the Mavs odds of winning the NBA Championship next season did not increase though on ESPN bet remaining the same as they were before they acquired Thompson at 11 to1 uh CC you think the addition of clay um let’s say have a major impact yeah on the Dallas Mavericks uh winning it all now absolutely absolutely I I think it will and I’m I’m shocked that those numbers stayed the same and those numbers may have stayed the same because everybody else in the west is getting better but when we look back at the NBA Finals what did we see we saw a team that loved to shoot the three all season long Mavericks were second in the league and three-pointers attempted this year behind who well the Boston Celtics and the problem was they were 13 when it came to actually making the shots and the Celtics defensively did a great job on the perimeter in the finals but the Mavericks just were not knocking down chots and those those numbers were entirely too low in the low 30s to have a chance I think even high 20s at one point to have a chance to win those games what’s Klay Thompson going to do he’s going to come in and at the very worst he’s going to shoot 38 39 40% from three they can use him in the perfect way with Luca and with k and he can take some of the pressure off them as well Klay Thompson makes a team that just got to the finals even better are they immediately definitively a championship favorite obviously not but at 11 to1 I could see putting down a couple of bucks on that because that does not feel like a an an accurate representation of what the Maverick’s championship chances are what do you think cor I I mean I agree the I was surprised to see that the didn’t change and when you talk about the shooters that Lucas had around him throughout his career he’s never played with somebody like Clay Thompson who shot 40% from three in eight different seasons throughout his long NBA career the upgrade is Major like I have a hard time thinking about Klay Thompson though at 34 years old being part of something that like has that word huge associated with it but it should drastically change the odds because he’s going to be part now of if you want to call it a three to where his role is different from what it was I mean the offb movement and what he can do what he did in Golden State vastly different styles between the Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks was Mavericks but that’s an upgrade there the corner three I mean Dallas is a team that attempted the most Corner threes last season throughout the regular season and they only hit 36% of them that’s one of the worst marks in the NBA Klay Thompson on his own was right around 42% so the movement element there for me and what this does for the offense Chris you mentioned I mean this takes the pressure off of Kyrie and Luca dones who was doing that in the in the five game series against the Boston Celtics not many players and on top of that I mean I think with Marshall with Grimes now with Klay Thompson going into a starter role where he doesn’t have to take a back seat to anybody the way that it was primed to play out for him had he resigned with the Golden State Warriors the Mavericks coming out of the West I think you probably end up putting Oklahoma City you put the Denver Nuggets you put the Minnesota Timberwolves but right there very firmly in the mix as a Dallas Mavericks to get back to the place where they were last season you know it’s interesting Wendy because Klay Thompson not only is going to get shots he’s going to get a lot of open shots because of the kick when Luca and those guys got into the middle of the lane they got doubled those guys had wide open shots and still couldn’t knock them down and Wendy last time I checked the Dallas Mavericks went through Minnesota went through OKC the two teams everyone’s been talking about probably the top teams in the west don’t you think the addition of Klay Thompson means that these guys are right back in the NBA finals next season I mean I wouldn’t I wouldn’t guarantee him back in the finals but this fit is just tremendous because the Mavericks are a high volume three-point shooting team they want to shoot a lot of Threes clay fit they don’t have great three-point Shooters clay fits into that honestly if he stays healthy he’s going to take 600 threes and know how many many them are going to be open I mean because he puts up huge volume and they want that it’s not like they have to bend their offense that’s why this fit made so much sense there was an emotional fit with the Lakers there the the basketball fit with the Mavericks is perfect um there’s only one thing I’m going to say about this um so there’s two reasons two core reasons really why Clay is not a warrior anymore one is obviously the contract issue where he and the Warriors run different pages and that shouldn’t be ignored that’s a primary issue the second thing is last year Clay’s role collapsed a little bit they took him out of the starting lineup for a while they stopped playing at the end of games and the reason they did that was because he struggled defensively on some of those perimeter players and it was a better option at times to have Brandon pky out there defensively so the thing that poured Rocket Fuel onto the Mavericks last year after the All-Star break was putting Derrick Jones Jun Derrick Jones Jr in there as they starting small forward defensively and letting him run around the perimeter their their defense took off as soon as that move happened it wasn’t just Jones but he was a turnkey that that really had their defense clicking so essentially what’s happened here is they’ve replaced Jones with Klay Thompson from a three-point and an offensive standpoint that’s a spectacular upgrade and everybody’s excited about it but they are probably going to play a pay a price defensively and that should not be overlooked and there could be a time time this upcoming season when Jason kid has to make a decision about whether it’s the same situation that that Steve Kerr was in this year does Klay Thompson fit defensively under certain circumstances at the end of games and the answer May overwhelmingly be yes because of the damage he can do on the offensive end but there is a defensive downgrade that they’ve made here swapping out Jones for Thompson and I think that has to be baked in to look at the Mavericks chances as well I mean to your point Wendy at that you’re look at uh for foreign speee speee fore for for for e e e for for for for for for for for for for 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FIRST TAKE | “A New Era in Dallas” – Stephen A.: Klay Thompson will bring title hopes to the Mavericks with the new BIG 3