Klay Thompson is expected to sign with the Miami Heat once he clears waivers, following a contract buyout with the Dallas Mavericks that the team announced Friday afternoon, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
He is not officially a member of the Heat yet. When a team buys out a player, he goes on waivers first, which gives every other team a window to claim him and take on his contract. Only after he clears does he become a free agent able to sign wherever he wants. Everyone expects that destination to be Miami, but the signature cannot happen until the waiver period runs out.
Thompson was owed $17.5 million this season, the last year of the three year, $50 million deal he signed with Dallas in 2024 after leaving Golden State. The buyout was his idea. He told the Mavericks he wanted to play for a contender, which is a reasonable ask for a 36 year old with four championships on a team that went 26-56 last season. When he signed there, the plan was to chase a fifth ring alongside Luka Doncic. Doncic got traded to the Lakers, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis got hurt, and the roster he joined stopped existing.
Miami played this one patiently. The Heat wanted Thompson badly but refused to give up rotation players or draft picks to trade for an expiring contract. Instead they waited, and they parked roughly $8 million of their midlevel exception rather than spending it elsewhere, betting a buyout would eventually come. It did. The Heat also had something to sell that they did not have a year ago, because they landed Giannis Antetokounmpo in a blockbuster trade this offseason, which turned Miami from an interesting option into a real contender.
The role Miami has reportedly built for him is the Ray Allen role. Allen spent the back end of his career in Miami as a pure floor spacer, a shooter defenses could not leave alone, and it worked. Thompson still ranks fourth all time in three pointers made with 2,899, having passed Damian Lillard last season.
The honest part is that he is not who he was. Last season he averaged 11.7 points and set career lows in both field goal percentage at 39.3 and three point percentage at 38.3. Jason Kidd moved him to the bench seven games into the year, which was awkward given that Dallas had promised him a starting job during its 2024 pitch. He is not the defender he used to be and he cannot create his own shot the way he once could.
What he can still do is shoot, and Miami’s entire pitch was built around that. The Heat offered a defined role, money already set aside, and a roster designed to get the ball to a shooter in rhythm. For a player whose stated goal is competing for a title rather than collecting a check, that is the trade he wanted to make.
