With the Gafford rumor, what about Klay?

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Good news to share: I’ll be on Yossi Gozlan’s next Third Apron video that explores various Warriors trade scenarios, as Friday night Chris Haynes of the NBA On Prime followed up his startling athletic shot-blocker rumor with a new one on a potential Golden State pursuit of Anthony Davis (utilizing the Jimmy Butler contract):

That video should come out on Gozlan’s YouTube channel by Tuesday.

But we’d barely gotten a chance to ponder the rim-runner archetype of Daniel Gafford, whom the Dubs obviously played head-on on Christmas.

And when you broach the topic of a player on Dallas, naturally you also think of a fairy tale reunion with Klay Thompson. After all, their salaries add up to about Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield’s, put together.

Granted, Haynes already reported that the Mavs aren’t interested in any of the Warriors’ assets (although in the context of the Davis rumor, see video below). But that just means you need to find additional teams who wouldn’t mind landing JK and/or Buddy and have assets that Dallas does like.

But… this one’s easy: Klay coming back to the Dubs is not happening this trade season, or perhaps as long as he’s being paid the remainder of that three-year, $50 million deal Nico Harrison originally signed him to.

Anthony Slater of ESPN reminded us in his pre-Christmas lead-up piece that the Lakers had actually offered Thompson more, way back when. I mean, if anyone is still bitter about the divorce, let’s face it: Klay found himself a nice landing spot by getting a more-than-fair salary, ensuring a promise to be a starter alongside greats like Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, not to mention joining a team that just gotten to the Finals. And yet, here we are. Here they are. 🤷🏻‍♂️

And Marcus Thompson of The Athletic concluded that this Christmas, there were near-nil mutual desires, let alone financial instruments available, when Klay came back to the Bay with this season’s trade deadline approaching:

“They are an opponent,” Thompson said. “Why would I look at any other team other than the Mavericks like that? It’s just the nature of the business.”

—

“Probably all the good times,” Thompson said when asked what he thinks about when visiting his old home. “Record-breaking nights. Championships. All that good stuff.”

😐

Here’s the video — just posted within the last 24 hours — that includes that monotone postgame Q&A Klay granted in the visitors’ locker room.

That last quote wouldn’t have even happened if not for Nick Friedell of The Athletic asking a “hand grenade” question as Klay finished slurping up his postgame protein shake and was eager (probably) to go introduce Megan Thee Stallion to Festus Ezeli — see subsequent video below:

As one Wardell Stephen Curry told Slater:

“It would be unbelievable,” Curry said of the idea (of Klay returning to the Warriors). “If that time comes and that conversation is had, of course I’m calling him and saying, ‘We want you back.’ And hopefully that would be a welcome message to him. But as we stand right now, that does seem like a far distant reality. But so did him leaving.”

Still, it seemed like the crowd at Chase Center obviously missed him:

But the main thing is, once again: cap sheets!

Gozlan and I both quickly agreed that the upgrade you would get, going from a Hield at $9 million to a Klay at $16.7 million — both playing limited minutes in very reserve roles, mind you — is not worth that difference of nearly $8 million.

It’s just not prudent fiscal management to discard Hield at $9 million in order to pay Klay at $17 million.

I used to think that maybe a buyout next season before its deadline of March 1, 2027 would be the best way for Klay to rejoin Golden State, but then I did some digging and remembered that teams above the first apron can’t sign a buyout player that was making more than the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, which is projected to be about $15.14 million for 2026-27. Thompson will make more than that at $17.46 million in 2026-27 and — barring a surprise such as trading Kuminga for only Draft capital, let’s say, which would probably get GSW under the luxury tax line and therefore below the first apron — the Warriors are more than likely to be hovering just below the second apron again by March 1, 2027.

In short, it’s super-unlikely for Klay to come back to us until Summer 2027. This would be the case even if there were mutual interest, just because of prudent cap sheet management.

Nevertheless, heck, Summer 2027 is when nearly all the contracts on Golden State expire anyways and we’ll see what kind of discounts the old guys come back with as free agents, assuming Curry still wants to keep playing.

Thanks for your patience as I came up with something to talk about in relation to the almost innocuous Christmas Game. The folks on our livestream chat gave disappointing grades even though a win is a win, and even Gozlan objectively observed that the Mavs played poorly.

Bottom line: I think we’ve put the Klay issue to bed.

We can miss him all we want, as Steve Kerr lamented after the last question on the podium, but Thompson is realistically not coming back until we effectively hit the reset button the Summer of 2027.

The Megan Thee Stallion jaunts on Klay’s boat, as seen at the end of this Moses Moody interview shall be few and far between:

All interviews in video format, with captions, are below. Don’t forget the De’Anthony Melton postgame Q&A — he always has some nugget that gets brought up. Transcripts are behind the paywall which will become unlocked soon, when the next set of transcripts after the Toronto game are ready. Or, you can just read the full transcripts in the Comments of each of the videos on YouTube:

🫶💙💛