DALLAS – Asked for one word to sum up the Dallas Mavericks’ approach this season, superstar Luka Doncic thought for a few seconds before coming up with his answer.
“Championship,” Doncic said during Monday’s media day at the team’s practice facility before the Mavs left for Las Vegas for training camp. “That’s the goal.”
The hope is that Klay Thompson, a four-time champion during his 13-year tenure with the Golden State Warriors, can be the final piece to the Mavs’ title puzzle after arriving as a prized free agent addition this summer.
“I feel like our dreams can be possible because he’s here now,” said Mavs co-star Kyrie Irving, who played a prominent role in the franchise’s recruitment of Thompson, his 2011 draft classmate and former Team USA teammate. “He added great value to our championship aspirations.”
Irving emphasized how Thompson’s title experience can benefit the Mavs, who advanced to the NBA Finals before losing to the Boston Celtics in five games last season. But the discussion of Thompson’s value — even at age 34 with two major injuries in his relatively recent medical history — begins with his historically elite 3-point shooting.
The Mavs prioritized adding a 3-point threat after struggling from long range in the Finals, when Dallas shot just 31.6% from 3-point range. Thompson is a career 41.3% 3-point shooter (38.7% on 9.0 attempts per game last season), who ranks sixth in NBA history with 2,481 3s made.
“When me and Kai, when we have the ball, you basically can’t help from Klay,” Doncic said. “Because if you leave him wide open, he will succeed. So I think the gap will be crucial for us, but more about that, I’ll tell you in a few games.”
With Irving owning Thompson’s familiar number 11 in Dallas, Thompson chose to wear number 31 as a way to honor Reggie Miller as he passes him on the all-time 3s made list, as Thompson enters the season 80 3s shy of that distinction. It also happens to be the number worn by Jason Terry, who coach Jason Kidd mentioned as the last premier perimeter shooter the Mavs hired.
“We had shooters, but we didn’t have Jason Terry or Klay Thompson,” said Kidd, who played alongside Terry in Dallas, including on the Mavs’ 2010-11 title team. “This is rarefied air. When you talk about Klay, he’s going to go down as one of the best shooters of all time. So having him on our side, it just makes the game easier. Spacing is a big thing in our league.
“When you look at teams that can make the game easy — Boston, ourselves — those are the ones that can win championships.”
Thompson said he believes his game “rounds out the roster very well” and that he provides the Mavs’ offense “a whole new dimension.” He acknowledged that he will have to make a significant adjustment to adapt to the Mavs’ style of play, which is drastically different from Golden State’s system.
“From an X’s and O’s standpoint, I’m going to have to adapt to maybe play those kind of good creators,” Thompson said. “In Golden State, it was a very motion-based offense. But I mean, just being able to play with Luka the last few days, his ability in the pick and roll is maybe the best I’ve ever seen. It’s going to be fun to play with him in those sets because he draws so much attention and he gets so many open looks for the perimeter So I’ll be there to knock them down.
“I think it will take a few weeks just to get used to this new system, but luckily opening night isn’t until [Oct. 24]. So this preseason might be the most important I’ve had in as many years, and I can’t wait to get going tomorrow and learn this system. But I know I’m a hooper so I can adapt accordingly and I’m looking forward to doing that.”
