The Mavericks perfect record without Klay Thompson might raise red flags for the veteran's impact
By Quinn Everts
Winning four games in row? Fun! Winning four games in a row, and those four games being the four games that your marquee free agent signing missed? A little less fun. A little awkward, too.
That's what the Dallas Mavericks are experiencing right now, as Klay Thompson has missed four straight games with a foot injury... and the Mavericks are playing their best basketball of the year. With Klay in the rotation, Dallas is 9-8 — without him, they're 4-0.
Don't sound the alarm bells yet, because there's a lot of context necessary here. Firstly, three of those Mavs wins have come against the Blazers, Jazz and Hawks. So it's not like Dallas has had a murderer's row of NBA opponents during Klay's time on the sideline.
Secondly, the Mavs haven't been bad when Thompson was on the court; Of course, there has been an adjustment period to acclimate a player like Thompson into the lineup; but Dallas wasn't playing awful basketball by any means.
Another very important bit of context is that Luka Doncic also missed 3 of the 4 games Dallas has won in a row. So either the team is better without Klay and Luka or... the Mavs just happened to win those games.
Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided’s daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you don’t like The Whiteboard, share it with an enemy!
Klay Thompson has been a positive, but...
When Thompson is on the court, Dallas is +3.8 points per 100 possessions versus when he's off the court, meaning the Mavs are pretty considerably better with Klay on the court.
But his on/off numbers don't excuse him from shooting 36.8 percent from 3-point range, a number that would easily be a career-worst for him. Those numbers also don't account for who Thompson has been on the court with; a list that usually includes Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, two players who can make anyone around them net-positives.
Basically — the Klay Thompson minutes and games haven't been disastrous. But him leaving with injury and the team immediately finding its rhythm still isn't a great sign.