{"id":96049,"date":"2024-09-16T17:44:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T21:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=96049"},"modified":"2024-09-16T17:44:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T21:44:02","slug":"mavericks-klay-thompson-gives-confident-season-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/16\/mavericks-klay-thompson-gives-confident-season-forecast\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks Klay Thompson Gives\u00a0Confident Season Forecast\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">After a monumental offseason move from Golden State to Dallas, <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Klay Thompson<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0has big expectations for his new team going into the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/13\/cavs-top-two-bench-players-who-must-be-key-contributors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">2024-25 NBA campaign<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Thompson shared his thoughts on the season and what he foresees. Let&#8217;s hear what he had to say.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Mavericks Klay Thompson Gives\u00a0Confident Season Forecast<\/h2>\n<h3>Klay Thompson Sees Good Things Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>The Mavericks Klay Thompson acquisition this summer has the potential to be the signing of the offseason if all goes well in Big D. There was much attention and talk throughout last season surrounding the Golden State Warriors and Thompson&#8217;s future there. Well, Thompson is now a Maverick with the opportunity to play alongside <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a>. This grouping would have carried on the &#8220;big three&#8221; mantra in the NBA five or so years ago. While not so much now with the present career points of Irving and Thompson, the two with Luka still have the potential to be a legitimate threat in the West.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a  href=\"https:\/\/dallashoopsjournal.substack.com\/p\/klay-thompson-talks-mavericks-at?r=87bhd\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoop Journal<\/a>, Klay Thompson is confident in the Mavericks&#8217; chances in a deep, crowded West.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited; it&#8217;s a whole new chapter of my career that has the potential to be really special,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The team was so close last year\u2014three wins away from a championship \u2014 so I know we have the ingredients for success. We just have to stay together and build week by week. I know we can do something special, and that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m here early, just to get a feel for the city and the lay of the land. And I&#8217;m having fun while doing it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Bonding with Mavs Past and Present<\/h3>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RO7h92iQUQg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klay Thompson loves his boat<\/a>\u2014this was a common theme during his time living in San Francisco as a Warrior. He loved to be on the water, which hasn&#8217;t changed since moving to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/07\/dallas-mavericks-are-re-signing-former-nba-champion-markieff-morris\/\" target=\"_self\">Dallas<\/a>. During summer workouts in Los Angeles, Thompson gifted some of his new teammates a boat ride to Catalina. Klay Thompson also recently spent time with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nowitdi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dirk Nowitzki<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nashst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Nash<\/a>, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bareajo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.J. Barea<\/a>. The foursome participated in a friendly tennis match in honor of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/mavericks\/2024\/09\/14\/new-and-old-dallas-mavericks-attend-dirk-nowitzkis-tennis-classic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nowitzki&#8217;s foundation<\/a>, the &#8220;Dirk Nowitzki Foundation Tennis Classic.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thompson looks to be doing just fine starting over after an 11-year run with the Warriors. As for his Mavs teammates, his addition has been more than welcoming.<\/p>\n<h3>Klay&#8217;s Impact this Season<\/h3>\n<p>Last season wasn&#8217;t terrible by all accounts for Thompson. He averaged 17.9 points and went 38.7% from three\u2014his specialty. Those numbers could amount to a career year for many other NBA players. It&#8217;s just that Klay Thompson, in his greatness as a fellow splash brother alongside <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steph Curry<\/a>, hadn&#8217;t averaged less than 20 points since the 2014-15 season. So, for Thompson&#8217;s standards, 17 points per game is a down year, and understandably so. It was a tough campaign for the Warriors from start to finish.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the Mavericks expressed confidence in Thompson by luring him to Dallas to play with Don\u010di\u0107 and Irving. I smell a new Klay Thompson in Dallas. Luka and Kyrie are both excellent passers and assist-makers. Setting Thompson up for spot-up threes or off-the-ball shots could very well be in their collective bag this season.<\/p>\n<p>One thing is for certain: As a Maverick, Klay Thompson believes he and his new squad can compete with the best in the West and that something special is brewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a monumental offseason move from Golden State to Dallas, Klay Thompson\u00a0has big expectations for his new team going into the\u00a02024-25 NBA campaign. Thompson shared his thoughts on the season and what he foresees. Let&#8217;s hear what he had to say. Mavericks Klay Thompson Gives\u00a0Confident Season Forecast Klay Thompson Sees Good Things Ahead The Mavericks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":96085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1608,62,3],"tags":[49979,161,3759,70,406,1133,48,1186],"class_list":["post-96049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mavericks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-2024-25-nba-season","tag-dirk-nowitzki","tag-jj-barea","tag-klay-thompson","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-luka-doncic","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-nash"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}