Report: Klay Thompson chose Mavericks over Lakers because he believed they had a better chance to win a ring

Before longtime Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson joined the Dallas Mavericks via a sign-and-trade deal, the Los Angeles Lakers allegedly tried to trade D’Angelo Russell to Golden State in exchange for the five-time All-Star.

Per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Thompson spurned an opportunity to play for one of the most storied franchises in all of professional sports and chose the Mavericks instead because he believed that he had a better chance of winning another title with Dallas than Los Angeles.

“Thompson chose the Mavericks over the Los Angeles Lakers, who also recruited him in free agency, because he believed Dallas provided him the best chance to pursue a fifth championship ring,” MacMahon wrote. “He believed he could be the missing player after the Mavs, fresh off their five-game NBA Finals loss to the Boston Celtics, promised him a starting spot. He craved the opportunity to prove that, at 34 years old and with two major injuries on his medical records, he could still play a major role on a contender.”

The Mavericks haven’t exactly done a great job of validating Thompson’s belief through 10 games of the team’s 2024-25 regular season. While it’s still quite early on in the campaign, Dallas owns a .500 record at 5-5, and the team wouldn’t even qualify for the play-in tournament if the season ended right now.

Thompson is also in a bit of a shooting slump after he got off to a strong start to his first season as a Maverick. He has shot a combined 8-of-26 from the floor across Dallas’ last two games, which were against the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are 6-4 on the season and winners of each of their last two contests. Los Angeles can extend its current winning streak to three with a victory over the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night.

The Lakers are off to a rock-solid start to the campaign thanks in part to how well the team has played on the offensive side of the ball. Los Angeles ranks among the top 10 in the NBA in points per game, field-goal percentage and free throws made per contest.

Another factor in Los Angeles’ early-season success is that Austin Reaves is on track for a career year in his fourth season in a Lakers uniform. He’s averaging 18.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game thus far on great scoring efficiency to boot. Reaves has seen 48.5 percent of his shots from the field and 37.0 percent of his 3s find the bottom of the net.

Reaves has scored 20-plus points in three of the last five games he’s suited up in as well.