Klay Thompson Trade Rumors Heat Up: Mavericks Want Him Gone, Lakers and Heat Are Watching
Klay Thompson’s time in Dallas might be nearly done. The Mavericks are actively shopping him, he would welcome a return to Los Angeles, and the Miami Heat are lurking with real interest.
Klay is entering the last year of the three-year, $50 million contract he signed with Dallas in 2024. His 2026-27 cap number is roughly $17.5 million. The Mavericks currently have 16 players on fully guaranteed deals but can only carry 15 on the regular season roster, and Thompson’s number is the most obvious one to move.
His 2025-26 season was disappointing by every measure. His minutes dropped, his usage rate dropped, and for the first time in his 13-year NBA career, he accepted a primary bench role. That is not a normal transition for a four-time champion who once averaged 26 a game.
The market is soft. The four-time NBA champion is no longer valuable enough on his current contract to command real assets, which means any trade is likely going to look more like a salary dump than a talent swap. Dallas would probably need to take back equivalent bad money on a longer term just to move him.
Two destinations keep coming up. The Los Angeles Lakers are the sentimental fit. Klay grew up in the Southern California basketball scene, his father Mychal was a Lakers champion, and returning to LA to close out his career would be the kind of storyline that plays well. Klay himself has apparently made clear he would welcome that outcome.
The Miami Heat are the strategic fit. Erik Spoelstra has built a career on getting the most out of veteran shooters with playoff experience, and Thompson is the exact profile Miami has traditionally chased. Even a diminished Klay is a devastating catch-and-shoot threat on a team that runs offense the way Spoelstra does. The Heat need shooting to open up Bam Adebayo and the rest of the roster.
Dallas is not going to buy Klay out. That was made clear in recent reporting. A buyout would send Thompson to the highest bidder for free, and the Mavs would eat the money for nothing. That is not how Nico Harrison operates.
The Warriors, weirdly, are quietly hoping the Mavericks do not send Klay to the Lakers. Golden State would rather see him land anywhere other than a rival Western Conference contender. That is a nice bit of subplot from the front office in the Bay that reportedly still gets asked about Klay in every roster conversation.
Klay is 36 now. He is not the two-way star he was in his prime. He is still a real threat when the offense sets him up correctly, and he is one of the most respected voices in a locker room in the entire league. Any contender that adds him gets a real veteran presence and enough shooting to matter in a playoff series.
The Mavericks have to move somebody to get to 15. Klay is the number that makes the most sense to move. He wants to be gone.
Dallas is going to trade him. It is just a matter of when and where.
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.
