Klay Thompson To Sign Two-Year Deal With Heat

In an unsurprising move, Klay Thompson has signed a two-year deal with the Heat after clearing waivers on Sunday, with the second year being a player option, Shams Charania reports for ESPN (Twitter link).

Charania had previously reported that this agreement was in the works following Thompson’s buyout with the Mavericks. During said buyout, Thompson reportedly gave back around $9.8MM of his $17.5MM salary.

The deal is for $11.5MM, and will include a 15% trade kicker, Sam Amick and Darnell Mayberry report for The Athletic.

The Heat have been searching for a high-volume three-point threat to add to their starting lineup, which is loaded defensively but less threatening from deep. Their interest in Thompson, as a shooter with championship pedigree, is part of what prevented them from using part of the team’s mid-level exception to pursue Bradley Beal or DeMar DeRozan.

The four-time champion knocked down 38.3% of his 7.6 three-point attempts last season while averaging a career low in minutes (21.7), points (11.7), and games started (8). While the weight of previous injuries has slowed him down as a player, especially on the defensive end, he has remained remarkably durable since the two and a half years he missed from 2019 to the second half of 2021/22.

He has played 69 or more games in each of the last four seasons, averaging 16.4 points and shooting 39.4% on 8.7 threes per game over that span.

Thompson now not only gets a chance to play for a team with championship ambitions, but also will have a chance to compete for a starting spot on the team, though it’s possible he won’t be closing games, especially in matchups where head coach Erik Spoelstra wants more defense on the court.

In those situations, Pelle Larsson could be Spoelstra’s top choice.