Klay Thompson’s resurgence is making the Warriors regret their biggest mistake

On Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center, the Dallas Mavericks secured one of their most hard-fought victories of the entire season with a 111-107 win over the Golden State Warriors. Dallas was down seven players in this contest, as the Mavericks' big man depth has been completely mutilated recently, and the Mavericks are doing anything they can to reach the All-Star break without suffering more losses due to injury.

Mavericks superstar Kyrie Irving had a miraculous 42 points on 15-25 shooting from the field in this contest, as Irving is taking the burden of an extremely heavy workload with Anthony Davis out of the lineup due to a left adductor strain. Ever since the Mavericks made the Luka Doncic swap for Davis, fans have displayed contempt and anger toward Mavericks management and President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison, but one must give credit to the Mavericks and Irving for staying poised and locked in amidst one of the most difficult periods in franchise history.

Despite all of the drama surrounding the Mavericks and the fallout from the Doncic trade, Irving's heroic performance was not the only intriguing dig from this contest, as former Warrior Klay Thompson had yet another great game against his former team. Thompson struggled to maintain his efficiency throughout the course of the contest, as he finished 6-19 from the field overall, but he got off to another hot start for Dallas and finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, and a team-high +19 in this game.

Warriors made a major mistake replacing Thompson with Hield

In three games versus his former team this season, Thompson is averaging 22.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game on 44/48.6/85.7 shooting splits. Thompson has approached every matchup against the Warriors with an unrivaled level of intensity and vengeance, but beyond him proving to the Warriors how much they miss him in individual matchups, he's proving to the Warriors that they would much rather have him instead of the replacement Golden State found for Thompson in Buddy Hield.

With the Warriors having acquired Jimmy Butler III at the trade deadline, Golden State could've had premium offensive spacing with Thompson still in the lineup, as his replacement valve in Hield went 1-9 from the field in Dallas' Wednesday night victory. Thompson occasionally will have some dud shooting performances at this stage in his career as well, but the other parts of his game aren't near as limited as Hield's, and the Warriors would have a much better shot at contending once again following the Butler III trade if they didn't ship out Thompson this past offseason.

Despite turning 35 years old a little over a week ago, Thompson has played far better than 32-year-old Hield this season, as he's averaging more points and has shot better in every statistical shooting category compared to Hield this season. While Hield and Thompson are very similar archetypes of players, Thompson has proven he's still a solid defender and he's been far more comfortable scoring in the mid-range and on drives for the Mavericks recently.

Hield may be close to as good of a shooter as Thompson, but he's not near as versatile in these other facets, and Thompson has proved that he's far and away a more dynamic player than Hield ever since he's successfully assumed a greater workload as an offensive initiator following the Doncic trade. Furthermore, the Warriors ought to regret sign-and-trading Thompson to Dallas in the offseason and electing not to pay him his desired amount, as Thompson's recent resurgence could be telling of him being able to return fairly close to the level he was at during the 2022-23 season after a down season with Golden State last season.

Going forward, the Mavericks will look to rely on Thompson for more offensive creation amidst this Davis-less stretch, but the Warriors will be biting themselves in the tongue if Thompson is able to keep up the same volume of offensive production that he has recently in Dallas.