Mavericks nearly chose former champion over Klay Thompson this summer

Right after the Dallas Mavericks lost in the NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics over the summer, it was clear they needed more 3-point shooting.

Dallas shot 31.6 percent from downtown in that series, and they prioritized adding shooting in the offseason. The Mavs had less than a month to prepare for free agency, but they wasted no time once free agency began to sign their sharpshooter of the future.

Dallas signed Klay Thompson to a three-year, $50 million deal within the first few days of free agency, but there was a different deal that the Mavs pursued that would have changed everything.

Mavericks had their eyes on Caldwell-Pope early in free agency

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, "Dallas had interest in Caldwell-Pope (subscription required) at the start of free agency last summer that it quickly abandoned when Denver signaled it would not participate in a sign-and-trade."

Of course the Mavs ended up making a sign-and-trade for Thompson, but if they were to have made a sign-and-trade with the Denver Nuggets, Thompson would have never become a Maverick.

While Thompson's start to the year as a Maverick hasn't been as great as expected, teams still can't leave him open. His off-ball gravity has been elite all year long, and the spacing that Dallas gets while he's on the floor is invaluable.

This season for Dallas, Thompson is averaging 13.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.6 steals per game while shooting 39.5 percent from the field and 37.4 percent from downtown. He is having the most inefficient season of his career, but it looks like the Mavs got the better deal.

Caldwell-Pope is averaging 8.3 points per game while shooting 39.9 percent from the field and 30.3 percent from downtown and playing over 30 minutes per game, and on top of that, his contract was much bigger than Thompson's. The Orlando Magic signed Caldwell-Pope to a three-year, $66 million deal, and he isn't living up to that deal.

Thompson is starting to get back in the flow of things after missing four games with left foot plantar fascia, and as the year goes on, he should only get better. Dallas has gone away from running consistent off-ball actions for him, but he is slowly starting to sink more of his wide-open jumpers.

He and Luka Doncic are starting to get on the same page, and Thompson is starting to get more comfortable in his role. Dallas has always tried to make things easy on Thompson when it comes to how to use him, and if history repeats itself, he'll only get better as he gets more accustomed to his role and new environment.

On the other side of the ball, Thompson has been solid, and he isn't the defensive liability that he was made out to be. He moves well laterally, and his on-ball defense has been good. Jason Kidd often gives him tough defensive assignments to begin games, and he seems engaged on that end right away.

All in all, Dallas got the better end of the deal by signing Thompson, and Mavs fans should be grateful that the Nuggets refrained from making a sign-and-trade with Dallas. Caldwell-Pope hasn't panned out to be the same player in Orlando that he was in Denver, and things would be much different today if the Nuggets had made this move with the Mavs.