It’s time to turn up the Will Smith track as former Golden State Warrior Klay Thompson is going to Miami.
Three weeks ago I wrote in these pages that Miami was the landing spot outside the Bay that would make the most sense. Now it’s official. Shams Charania reported that Thompson is clearing waivers after a buyout from the Mavericks and signing with the Heat.
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Klay is a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer with five All-Star selections, four championship banners, a shooting stroke that turned the Splash Bros into something far beyond Steph Curry’s brilliance. As a member of Dub Nation, I can honestly say that none of that ever looked right on a Dallas jersey. In his second and final year in Dallas, Thompson posted career lows across the board and shot 38.7% percent from three on a team that finished 26-56. Watching a Splash Brother play out a lost season for a tanking roster was absolutely brutal.
And now Klay becomes yet another Warrior legend who finds himself out there on South Beach. Tim Hardaway ran Run TMC’s fast break in Oakland before he made an All-Star team wearing a Heat jersey. Andre Iguodala left Golden State and helped Miami reach the Bubble Finals against every projection. Andrew Wiggins, a guy this fanbase watched grow up in real time, has currently planted his flag down there too.
And this is honestly the best fit I could think of for Klay besides coming back home to the Bay Area. Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo both live in the paint, and putting them out there together means Miami needs spacing around them. I believe that Klay is a still a shooter defenses respect from thirty feet without needing the ball in his hands. That’s the job Thompson spent a decade perfecting in Golden State’s motion offense back when cutting and relocating was the whole assignment.
And somewhere in the Bay, a fanbase gets to keep tabs on the younger Splash Brother chasing Ray Allen for third on the career threes list in a jersey that isn’t GSW but somehow doesn’t sting the way the others would have.
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Four names deep now: Hardaway, Iguodala, Wiggins, Thompson. Miami keeps borrowing Golden State legends, and every time, they let them cook. How crazy would it be if Klay actually gets a fifth ring this season, passing up his old running mates Steph, Dray, and Iguodala?
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