Klay Thompson had an extremely emotional offseason, parting ways with the Warriors. However, as the 2024-2025 season approaches, the 34-year-old is ready to hit the ground running with his new team. Thompson was even excited when describing the feeling of playing for the Mavericks by hilariously comparing his situation to “transferring schools”.
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Despite being an individual as experienced as he is, Thompson also admitted that he had “butterflies” during training camp. While this feeling might be a new emotion for him, he’s ready to embrace this challenge and help Jason Kidd’s side fulfill their goal of winning a championship.
“It feels like transferring schools. but it’s a feeling you want to embrace because it’s so rare to get those butterflies as a player. It’s awesome… That’s the goal the team this season, is to obviously win a championship,” Thompson said.
Representing the Texas side is certainly a new feeling. However, similar to his stint with the GSW, Thompson will share the backcourt with yet another generational talent in Luka Doncic. Speaking about his new teammate, the sharpshooter lauded the Slovenian for being one of the best on-ball players and even expected to receive several open looks.
“Luka is one of the best players with balls in his hands in the world so it’s a pleasure to be on the receiving end of that. He’s going to generate a ton of great looks for me,” Thompson revealed.
Thompson is set to receive wide-open looks due to Doncic and Kyrie Irving’s ability to space the floor and attract defenders. Hence, we can finally expect the four-time champ to get his shooting numbers back to normal after a subpar display in the 2023-2024 campaign.
Thompson will hope to redeem himself
It is quite a miraculous feat that Thompson is still active in the league despite suffering two horrific injuries–ACL and Achilles – in quick succession. He even recorded 20+ points per game in the first two seasons since his return.
With the injuries not bothering him anymore, the two-time All-NBA player was even expected to perform at a similar All-Star level as he did before going down with injuries. Instead, the guard had one of the worst campaigns of his career during the 2023-2024 season. All his major stats took a hit while also almost touching career-lows of 43.2% FG and 38.7% 3FG.
Even if Thompson isn’t averaging numbers as he previously did during the prime of his career, the switch to a new franchise should help the superstar establish a new role. In all probabilities, Klay will be leading the second unit of Kidd’s roster. While he did put up some respectable numbers when coming off the bench during the 2023-2024 season, the 6ft 6 player was unable to help the Warriors win games.
He will now hope to be more comfortable in his new role and play a crucial part in the Mavericks’ success in the upcoming season.
