During the 2024 offseason, Klay Thompson's decision for his next team after spending his first 13 seasons in the league with the Warriors came down to the Los Angeles Lakers or the Mavericks. After a meeting with Nico Harrison and Michael Finley, Thompson chose to join Dallas on a three-year, $50 million deal via a sign-and-trade. That decision hasn't aged well.
Thompson thought he'd have a better chance to win a fifth championship with the Mavericks than with the Lakers. He'd get to play alongside Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, the duo that helped Dallas make a run to the NBA Finals a few weeks before.
Little did Thompson know that midway through his first season in Texas, Harrison would trade Dončić to the Lakers for Anthony Davis. The Mavericks managed to make it to the play-in tournament without Irving, who had torn his ACL in March, but they didn't make it further than that. Dallas was awarded the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, Cooper Flagg, in a wild stroke of luck. As thrilling as that was, the rookie isn't a solution to all of the Mavericks' issues.
Dallas is 3-8 on the season, 14th in the West. Thompson is averaging a career-low 7.4 points per game on a putrid 31.4% shooting from the field and 26.7% from three. Less than two weeks into the season, Jason Kidd benched Thompson in favor of D'Angelo Russell.
Based on how Thompson has looked, it's a [good thing for the Lakers](https://lakeshowlife.com/lakers-thankful-they-dodged-massive-klay-thompson-letdown) that he didn't want to go to Los Angeles, but for Thompson, one would assume that it's a decision he wishes he could take back.
Klay Thompson would've been better off picking the Lakers
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There was no possible way to know that Dallas would trade Dončić to Los Angeles, but if Thompson had chosen the Lakers, he would be playing with Dončić right now. Money wasn't a significant factor in his decision to sign with the Mavericks, but he'd be making more, too. There were talks about a four-year, $80 million deal.
Thompson wants to win. He didn't predict that one of the main people who helped recruit him to Dallas, Harrison, would set the organization back by trading Dončić. Davis, who Harrison thought would set the Mavericks closer to winning a title than Dončić, has played only five games this season. He's missed the past six with a calf strain.
With the losses mounting, Patrick Dumont decided to fire Harrison on Tuesday. Although it was a necessary move, his departure won't magically clean up the mess that he left behind. The Mavericks' next move after firing Harrison [could be trading AD](https://lakeshowlife.com/anthony-davis-uncertainty-rising-in-dallas-makes-lakers-look-even-better) to build the future around Flagg and get a high 2026 draft pick, while the Lakers sit atop the West, and they've done so without LeBron James.
Who knows how the past year would've gone for Thompson if he had decided to go from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but it would've _had_ to go better than his move to Dallas.