FIRST TAKE | “Mavericks give Klay Thompson a better chance to win champ than Lakers” – Stephen A.

FIRST TAKE | “Mavericks give Klay Thompson a better chance to win champ than Lakers” – Stephen A.

Warriors during his 13 years with the team highlighted by four NBA championships Clay’s Legacy will live on forever and we look forward to the day we can retire his number 11 Jersey at Chase center now meanwhile Klay Thompson is an impact player in name but apparently not as much for his new team’s title odds the Mavs remain 11 to1 to win the title after yesterday’s news broke about Thompson joining the team all right tday I’m going to start with you on this one how close does clay put the Mavs to a title oo this is a good one uh it’s twofold just like Wendy’s first answer and I by by the way Wendy I love the unqualified successful uh celebration day that was a bar that was a bar how close does clay put the Mavs you know the Mavs were truly the Dark Horses of the NBA season especially after the trade deadline and dark horses are very fitting for Texas a Texas team now getting Klay Thompson is a step closer to True contention for them and I’m talking about like big contention getting back to the NBA finals because if there were two major criticisms that the Mavs had during the NBA Finals it would be how would the most dominant player in the NBA Fair against the most dominant team and Luca did struggle when even though he led the postseason in points and rebounds and assists and best you know if you think about it there were countless opportunities that Luca had based off of the gravity that he possesses that he generated for his teammates and they got themselves in a hole I remember the number they shot N9 for 31 in the first two games of the NBA Finals they shot 24% from three the worst in a series in 10 years now enters Klay Thompson now you have a guy that is one of the if not arguably the best catch and shooters in the NBA Klay has made the most catch and shoot threes over the last 10 seasons so he will help plug in and fix that hole but I think the other big criticism that the Mavs had was not just their catch and shoot off of Luca it was also their defense our research team ESPN had some wild numbers that I think set the internet on fire talking about defensive blow buys and historically bad defense the Mavs their number one priority has to be to fix that because as much as clay we knew earlier in his career he’s that three and D guy things have sort of changed so you will fix the offense but how will the mass fix the defense if they can solve those two points they could be back where we just saw them a few weeks ago well Clay is such a good fit in Dallas and that’s for the reason he picked the Mavericks and that’s when you know when free agency started that’s why niik Harrison and Jason kid were out here in La meeting with him because they wanted to show him what he already knew Klay knew he was going to leave uh the Warriors for months it was not a surprise to anybody there and so he spent the spring shopping for a new team he was watching the way the Mavericks were playing he saw the Mavericks missing all of those threes in the finals and he obviously saw he’d be a perfect fit there so I’m not surprised the fit the thing about it is when you look at different situations with different teams what clay was doing for the Warriors last year may not have been the the type of thing that the Warriors needed but it is exactly what the Mavericks need it’s not just because he’s a perfect fit for the Mavericks doesn’t make him a perfect fit for the Warriors especially if he had wanted a salary that was much much higher than this this salary this role this team this time really does make sense because what you saw them need as CH was talking about is exactly what clay can provide the guy is going to take 500 catch and two three-pointers or something next year and he’s going to make hundreds of them he is going to have some nights where he just kills the opposition he’s going to look great um for the Mavericks it’s going to be a really good fit the reason you just want to see a little bit more first off when it comes to the whole West it’s a very competitive situation is not it’s not a commentary on the Mavericks it’s just look how good these top teams are look how good the Timberwolves are look how good the nuggets are the Oklahoma City Thunder have had the best offseason in the Western Conference they’ve absolutely smashed out of the park and they are only going to get better the thing that you that you look at this transaction and you worry about a little bit if you’re Dallas they had he is going to replace Derrik Jones in the starting lineup that is where his role is going to be and he will get those minutes Jones is a terrific athlete he’s going to go play for the Clippers now um the trades that they made they had to make three trades to make this Klay Thompson transaction work and they moved out Josh Green who’s a you know quality backup they they moved out Tim Hardway Jr and they lost uh A Jones and so you take a really good Defender with great athleticism who was a rim Runner who was that that lob threat and you put clay in there is a loss there there is a defensive penalty there there is an athleticism deficit there so the there there’s definitely ads with Clay but there are going to be some concerns especially the defensive end for Dallas well we we know that Clay is nowhere near the defensive player that he used to be but I think this puts them much much much closer to a title when I factor in everything that you guys have talked about what the numbers looked like in the finals I mean these were Boston and Dallas the two top teams this season in few in threes attempted during the year there no accident that they ended up uh in the finals from that standpoint but Boston was second in terms of three-point shooting percentage and Dallas was 13th you saw all the misses in the final part of that is because of outstanding perimeter defense from Boston part of that is because we know that Luca wasn’t anywhere near 100% in this so I think you add clay somebody who has been there before and now is at a different juncture of his career and can be very effective if they employ him in the role that he’s going to fit in the most and that’s playing 30 minutes a night that’s likely being on the you know on the floor at the end of the game in terms of needing somebody to make a big shot and it just takes some of the pressure off of Kyrie and off of Luca uh two guys who have come together in the last year after that failed initially and they seem to have found the right chemistry together and now they add somebody who has been there and won four championships all of those are very good things the one thing I I do think that we need to remember is that you know second half of the year really after the trade deadline the Mavericks were much much better defensively and it was a surprise to a lot of us because it had been bad very bad as Chan was talking about historically bad at times I I’m not going to sit here and expect them to be a dominant defensive team I will expect them to be more consistent in that regard if you have Clay and shot maker of this caliber arguably one of the top five to seven shooting guards of all time shooting is not a a trait that goes away with age and I think that’s one of the things that makes this just the most encouraging for them the idea that you you’re bringing in somebody to fill a specific role with a championship pedigree and let’s just go what it is absolutely motivated I mean there is no question with how things went down this year that he wants to make a statement this year you know what’s really interesting when you mention age I’m just thinking about boxing right and how they say Styles make fights and I do think as the Warriors age I mean you have to give credit to Steph Curry for being the guy with probably in the most condition consistently in the NBA over the last decade but it’s been hard when you’re Klay Thompson dealing with two injuries playing in that Golden State you know moving without the basketball style now you go to Dallas and I think clay he definitely had options they had to uh been plenty of you know suitors because the role that he was asked to do in Golden State I think it’s hard as you age out of that to sort of feel confident in who you are whereas the rest of the League’s like well we just straight up need a shooter a down Year from Clay is a good year for someone else in our quote unquote Supporting Cast and he had a choice and he chose Dallas because maybe the style actually suits him Aging in some ways when we talk about the Dallas Mavs it’s largely been what is the vage that these guys are shooting from the corner these guys are snipers no matter who you put in the corner they’re knocking down threes um didn’t we just see Corner three I forgot from Derek Lively even like his first ever three in the NBA Finals not saying that that’s exactly the role that Lively is going to play but overall they make their guys look great based off of the style and based off of the Personnel of Luca and Kyrie being some of the best isolation scores in the NBA now you insert clay where he may not have to move nearly as much maybe this will be a better circumstance a better style for clay so that he can manage and conserve his energy versus The Way That We Knew Klay Thompson with the Golden State Warriors for those first 10 or so years so I think that probably factored also into the equation uh I want to ask you Wendy because there was a lot of conversation about the fact that that uh clay could end up in LA with the Lakers what does this say about the Lakers that he chose the Mavs over them I I just think that it says the Mavs are in a better spot and that’s not a controversial position the were just in the finals um you know and the other thing was the Mavs were more aggressive about this the Mavs like I said they made several trades to clear this situation out the Lakers made no trades now that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have some things on the runway that if clay had given them the nod they couldn’t have done otherwise they wouldn’t have made the offer to him but um I I just think the MS are in a better place there’s a better spot for him there’s a more clear path at Dallas I don’t know exactly how JJ is going to coach with the Lakers JJ could end up giving the Lakers a terrific bounce and the and the changes that he has made could end up really changing their situation but right now it’s a little bit hypothetical and if you’re clay and you’re really trying to win because you’re taking less money here you know the amount of money that he still could have gotten from the Warriors he’s gonna get less than than than if he I think the I know they hadn’t your team has destroyed a tower Tower your team destroy the tower your team has destroyed a tower your team has destroyed a tower is under attack executed [Applause] Slayer has appeared prare for the final battle an enemy has been defeated [Applause] you have defeated an 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FIRST TAKE | “Mavericks give Klay Thompson a better chance to win championship than Lakers & Warriors” – Stephen A.