It shouldn’t be a surprise that one of the best shooters of all time is playing well next to Luka Doncic
The most memorable moment from Klay Thompson’s Mavericks debut against the Spurs last week was hard to miss. It was Thompson doing what he’s done a lot — splashing in a wide open three — but with new teammate Luka Doncic starting his celebration before Thompson had even launched the ball from his hands.
Thompson had all day to shoot, so open in fact that he had time for a short rhythm dribble to get himself set. It was one of six three pointers Thompson made, the most for any Maverick debuting with the team.
While Thompson in a Mavericks uniform was quite the new experience, the way he got this wide-open three was anything but. Even though the Mavericks made an impressive NBA Finals run a season ago, one of the major knocks on the Mavericks from a national, broader perspective is that their offense is too reliant on Luka Doncic and his ball-stopping tendencies. Those takes aren’t completely meritless, as the Mavericks did rely on Doncic to do too much in the past. What made those takes crazy when it came to Thompson joining the Mavericks this past summer is that the Mavericks supposed stagnant offense has already supported a high-volume three point shooter: Tim Hardaway Jr.
In Hardaway’s five full seasons with Dallas, he averaged 7.5 three point shots per game, making 37.5 percent of them, qualifying him as one of the NBA’s most accurate long-range, high-volume bombers. Across both Rick Carlisle and Jason Kidd’s schemes, Hardaway became a deadly volume shooter in the Mavericks offense next to Doncic. In spot up possessions, according to NBA.com data, Hardaway was in the 70th percentile or better in terms of efficiency, placing in the 94.7 percentile in the 2021 season. For possessions qualified as coming off a screen, Hardaway finished with two 90-plus percentile seasons in Dallas (2023 and 2021).
Take a look at Thompson’s memorable three from that win against the Spurs — the reason it might look familiar is because it’s the same action the Mavericks have ran for Hardaway multiple times in the past.
(Thanks to the incredible Panda Hank for the side-by-side look)
Through four games in Dallas, Thompson is averaging 3.7 wide-open three attempts per game, according to NBA.com’s tracking data. “Wide-open” attempts are classified as the nearest defender being six or more feet away. With Golden State last season, Thompson was averaging 2.3 of those “wide-open” attempts. You could argue that some of the Mavericks stagnant tendencies over the years were less because of Doncic’s proclivities and more the situation and roster — when the Mavericks had a high-volume three point shooter (Hardaway) he thrived! The problem was of course Hardaway wasn’t sure-fire closer due to negatives in the rest of his game, and the Mavericks just didn’t acquire many high-volume shooters in the early seasons of Doncic’s career.
The ultimate caveat to all of this is that it’s still very early in the NBA season, but it shouldn’t be a surprise to see Thompson thrive early on next to one of the greatest three point shot creators in the NBA. He’s made 17-of-40 (42.5) percent of his threes so far, and none of it feels particularly fluky, especially since Thompson has still been an accurate shooter at high-volume the last three seasons, all coming after his two severe lower body injuries.
There are still concerns Thompson and the Mavericks have to answer — mostly focused on how Thompson and the Mavericks will hold up on the defensive end of the floor — but offensively, this wasn’t too hard to figure out. Thompson is still an elite shooter, the Mavericks have an elite three point shot creator, and experience supporting a high-volume shooter. Thompson’s offensive fit with the Mavericks should have been the last thing to question when the Mavericks acquired him, but it was asked anyway. The answer can be short and sweet: it works.