Richard Jefferson on why Klay Thompson’s rejection was so painful to Lakers

As the Los Angeles Lakers are heading into next season with the hopes of once again contending for a championship that they last won in 2020, one of the crucial steps was bringing in another star along with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. One free agents that the team was gunning for was Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson, but since then, he has signed with the Dallas Mavericks as former player and basketball analyst Richard Jefferson discussed why that’s a painful move for the Lakers.

On the podcast “Road Trippin” with Kendrick Perkins, Channing Frye, and Allie Clifton, Jefferson would go in to detail of how great of a fit it would have been if Thompson joined the Lakers. He would talk about how since James is a point guard, he would have had to distribute the ball to feed not just Davis as he has been doing, but now with one of the best shooters of all time in Thompson.

“LeBron’s a point guard, he led the league in assists, he’s top five all time,” Jefferson said. “If you told Bron he’s just got to be the point guard and distribute to A.D, to bucket getters. That’s why Klay was so enticing, because Klay wouldn’t have to work as hard. That mother f—-er could stand right there, there would be this huge gap, on the court, and you can’t leave him. That dude could be out there in a wheelchair on crutches and you can’t leave him, so that’s why he was so important.”

Thompson saw Mavericks more of an attractive destination than Lakers

Instead, Thompson opted to join the Mavericks on a three-year, $50 million deal who could have been more of the attractive option since they just went to the NBA Finals, albeit lost to the Boston Celtics in five games, and have stars such as Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Jefferson would say now that that Doncic and Irving “have a huge gap” to work with with Thompson where his former teammate in Stephen Curry “has closed.”

“It’s the same thing with Luka [Doncic], Luka will spoon feed Klay [Thompson] open jumpers, and Luka will have a huge gap, Kyrie will have a huge gap,” Jefferson said. “That gap for Steph has closed, without him around.”

There was some drama last season with the Warriors and Thompson where there was multiple points where the four-time champion was benched for rookie Brandin Podziemski during shooting dry spells. Last season, Thompson averaged 17.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and 38.7 percent from beyond the arch which was the lowest in his career thus far.

Thompson’s father wanted him to go to the Lakers

Someone that was “disappointed” in the decision for the Warriors legend to join the Mavericks instead of the Lakers was his father Mycal Thompson according to SiriusXM Radio. There could be some bias as he played for the Lakers from 1987-1991 where he won two championships with them and is now on the radio broadcast for the team.

“I’m not feeling too much in a congratulatory mood…I’m really disappointed,” Mychal Thompson said. “I was hoping, as you can assess, that he would be a Laker. And it was close. It came down to the Lakers and the Mavs, but the Mavs won out. I was hoping and praying he’d finish his career with the Lakers.”

The father of Thompson would go in to his disappointment as besides the organization taking care of him and his family, Klay “grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant.” He then was talking about his thought process of how he thought it would have been a “perfect fit” to play with Los Angeles but respects his decision.

“The franchise has been so good to me and my family, including Klay,” Mycal Thompson said. “He grew up a Laker fan. He grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant like most players his age, most kids his age. So, I just thought it seemed like it would be the perfect fit for him to finally come back home. We always talked about him playing for the Lakers, because, if he wasn’t a Warrior, where else was he going to play? When the chance came, he chose the Mavericks.”

LeBron James was willing to take pay cut for Thompson 

It was also reported that LeBron James would have taken a pay cut if it meant the Lakers can sign a player to a big deal like Thompson whom he has known in his rivalry on the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Warriors. As said by Dave McMenamin of ESPN, he was ready to “make a financial sacrifice” for an “established veteran playmaker” like Thompson or even other players like Los Angeles Clippers star James Harden or new Washington Wizards star Jonas Valančiūnas.

“The type of player that James would be willing to make a financial sacrifice for would be an established veteran playmaker such as James Harden or Klay Thompson, or an established big man to play alongside Anthony Davis such as Jonas Valančiūnas, sources told ESPN,” McMenamin wrote.

Eventually, after James declined his player option, he and the Lakers agree to a two-year, $104 million extension.

Thompson didn’t join the Lakers for reasons off the court?

There are other people contemplating maybe the reason Thompson ended up not joining the Lakers did not have anything to do with basketball. This was speculated by Chris Broussard on his podcast “The Odd Couple” with Rob Parker where he said that in a hypothetical situation if Los Angeles won a championship, the attention would go on James.

“I think for Klay the most, the biggest fishbowl that would impact him is, he understands, as anybody that goes to the Lakers should understand Rob, if they were to win a championship, it really wouldn’t be about LeBron and Klay’s winning their fifth championship. It’ll be about LeBron winning the fifth championship and let’s have the GOAT conversation,” Broussard said.

In any sense, the Lakers are looking to bolster their roster in any way they can this summer as they want to improve after finishing with a 47-35 record which put them at the seventh seed. They were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in five games as they fired Darvin Ham to then hire former basketball player JJ Redick as their next head coach.