Klay Thompson wants to break a Miami Heat record. Specifically, he wants Duncan Robinson’s single-season three-point mark of 270 makes, set in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season. Thompson said it out loud this week, which tells you everything about how he feels heading into his first full year with the franchise.
This is a guy who took a $9.8 million buyout haircut to make the move to Miami, signed for $6 million, and now has to prove he was not just chasing sunshine.
Can he actually break the record? Absolutely yes.
Thompson has hit 270 threes in a season twice already. He made 276 in 2015-16 during his Warriors prime and dropped 301 in 2022-23 when he was healthy in the second half of the year. Even at 36, his mechanics are the cleanest in the league, and his footwork off screens has not lost a step because his game was never predicated on athleticism.
The variable is opportunity. Miami has Giannis Antetokounmpo now, plus Bam Adebayo, plus Tyler Herro. That is a lot of touches to divide up. Erik Spoelstra will have to run enough action to feed Thompson clean looks, and the roster will have to cooperate by driving and kicking rather than hunting isos.
My bet is Spoelstra makes it work. He has spent the last decade building his offense around movement shooters, and Thompson is the best movement shooter he has ever coached. If Klay plays 72 games and averages 30 minutes a night, the math on 270 threes checks out easily.
The interesting subplot is what this pursuit means for Duncan Robinson, who is still on the roster and still capable of hitting five threes on any given night. Robinson set the record as an undrafted find who became a Heat culture icon. Thompson chasing it is a passing of a torch that Robinson probably did not want to hand over yet.
Spoelstra will have to manage that dynamic, but Robinson is a professional and will do what the team needs.
The bigger question for Miami is whether all of this actually adds up to a title run. Adding Giannis makes them a top-four team in the East on paper. Adding Thompson gives them elite spacing around Giannis and Bam, which was the entire missing piece last spring. If Thompson stays healthy and Giannis avoids the wear-and-tear injuries that have dogged him in recent postseasons, this team is dangerous.
Records aside, Thompson did not come to Miami for stat lines. He came for one more shot at a ring, and the Heat can give him that chance.
If he breaks Robinson’s record along the way, it will be because the offense is humming and Miami is winning games. Those things travel together. Watch the assist numbers on made threes early in the season. If Herro and Bam are finding him coming off double screens, this record falls by March.
Miami’s schedule is set. Klay is locked in. The chase is officially on.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
