Jonathan Ingles: Hey — before we even get into takes, can I just say the Klay Thompson situation is the funniest bad front-office position I've seen in years? And I mean that seriously.
Devin Cross: Oh, we're absolutely getting into it — wait, funny how?
Jonathan Ingles: Dallas is publicly resistant to a buyout. That's the stance. But The Athletic reported August 3rd that no team has produced a real offer. So the leverage they're protecting doesn't exist.
Devin Cross: No — no, that's exactly right, and nobody's saying it that clean. The whole 'we prefer a trade' position only works if someone wants to trade for you. Klay signed in July 2024 to play with Luka Dončić — that was the reason, that was the whole thing — and then Dallas traded Dončić. Now they've got sixteen bodies for fifteen spots and apparently zero phone calls.
Jonathan Ingles: And seventeen-and-a-half million on an expiring deal for a thirty-six-year-old is — frankly, that's not a number that moves asset markets.
Devin Cross: It's not even close. So here's my take, full chest: Dallas buys him out in September. Has to. The only question is whether they do it in August with dignity or September in a panic.
Jonathan Ingles: I'm close to agreeing — though 'dignity' might be generous for a front office that traded away the reason Klay came there in the first place.
Devin Cross: Fair — but the dignity thing is almost beside the point because, wait, the actual problem isn't even pride. It's the number. Seventeen-and-a-half million. Nobody's building a trade around that.
Jonathan Ingles: That's the whole thing. Shams confirmed Miami's in — NBA Today, on record — and Barry Jackson at the Herald called Thompson Miami's offseason priority. Their priority. But if the Heat had real trade infrastructure they'd have structured a deal already. The fact they're waiting for a buyout tells you their matching salary is a problem, not their interest level.
Devin Cross: Miami's priority that they can't actually... yeah, that tracks.
Jonathan Ingles: And then the Lakers side — look, the loudest voice saying Klay comes home is Mychal Thompson. His father. A Lakers radio broadcaster. That's not a front-office pursuit, that's a dad with a microphone saying he's 'really trying' to persuade his son. Those are not the same thing.
Devin Cross: Come on — I mean, I knew the Lakers angle was thin, but when you say it like that it's almost embarrassing. The man shot 38.3% from three on seven-and-a-half attempts a game in under 22 minutes last season — that's elite spacing — and the loudest recruiter is his dad doing radio?
Jonathan Ingles: The player is real. The market isn't. And stay tuned — because once Dallas finally folds on this buyout, there's a landing spot nobody's seriously discussing that changes the whole story.
Devin Cross: Wait — nobody's discussing it, but I'm going Golden State. Because, no, think about it — Kerr's still there, Curry's still there, and the Warriors led the entire league in three-point attempts last season. Forty-four-point-one a game. Klay doesn't have to create anything. He just has to stand in the corner and be Klay.
Jonathan Ingles: Forty-four-point-one attempts. That's — okay, that number actually does something to the argument.
Devin Cross: Right? And look, here's the scenario — it's September 2nd, a Mavericks GM has worked through fourteen teams, nobody moves cap space, nobody calls back. He picks up the phone at nine in the morning and tells Klay's agent: buyout Friday. Klay clears waivers, Golden State calls. The entire Lakers-Heat pursuit — the Mychal Thompson radio campaign, the Barry Jackson 'priority' reporting — it was just theater to pull the price down.
Jonathan Ingles: The dramatic scenario with the exact time is very you, I'll give you that.
Devin Cross: Come on — the point stands! And Brett Siegel at ClutchPoints straight-up reported the Mavericks have no current interest in a buyout. That's not resistance, that's a position they're already losing. Meanwhile at least one source said nothing suggests the Lakers have actually contacted Dallas. Nothing. So the loudest bidder in this whole thing is — again — Mychal Thompson on a Lakers radio broadcast.
Jonathan Ingles: The fit argument for LA is real on paper — JJ Redick, Austin Reaves handling the ball, Klay off-ball. Frankly that system works for him. But a fit argument isn't a phone call. Those are different things.
Devin Cross: That's the partial win I'll take — the Lakers fit is real, the Lakers pursuit is not. And when Dallas finally folds, Golden State minimum contract, Curry-Klay year two, that's the actual ending to this whole thing.
Jonathan Ingles: And if that's right — if Klay clears waivers and Golden State signs him for the minimum — the entire thing was fiction. The Lakers pursuit, the Heat priority, all of it. Dallas waited too long, the market collapsed, and they handed him back to Curry for free. That's the actual verdict.
Devin Cross: I mean — yeah, I'll take that. Full chest. Golden State, minimum deal, September. That's my call and I'm leaving it on record.
Jonathan Ingles: Mychal Thompson spent three months on Lakers radio and his son ends up back where he started. That's a podcast episode.
Devin Cross: Clip it. We're done.
