Former NBA player Rashad McCants has opened up on Klay Thompson’s departure from Golden State Warriors in the off-season. As reported earlier, Thompson has agreed to a three-year, $50 million deal the Dallas Mavericks
Thompson, 34, averaged 17.9 points in the last edition, his lowest since 2012-13 but he will be determined to prove his mettle for the Mavericks and clinch his fifth NBA ring.
As part of the deal, the Mavericks will need to send their guard/forward Josh Green to the Charlotte Hornets and two second-round picks to the Warriors.
Thompson played for the Dubs for 13 years and savored great success with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, registering 518 wins with the duo in the regular season and playoffs.
However, McCants reckons how the Dubs treated Jordan Poole after he was punched by Draymond Green, played a part in Thompson’s exit.
Rashad McCants said on Gil’s Arena podcast, “It’s a burning building. The motherf**kers [are] coming down, and unfortunately, it’s due to all of the things that the Warriors allowed to happen with Jordan Poole… I feel like that’s why Klay [Thompson] left.”
On the other hand, Warriors owner Joe Lacob claimed that Thompson decided to leave before a new offer was on the table.
He said on TK podcast, “We were in the process of developing an offer [at the start of free agency]. We really couldn’t do that, he knew that, without seeing how a lot of different chips, things were happening. We had a lot of things going on.”
Earlier, Thompson suffered a fatal knee injury and had to spend almost three years on the sidelines.