Mavericks are setting Klay Thompson up for failure before season even begins

With three preseason contests under their belt, the regular season is approaching sooner than the Dallas Mavericks can even expect. Overall, there have been some interesting takeaways from preseason as far as how the back half of the Mavericks' roster might turn out, but there hasn't been anything too substantial to take away since we haven't been able to see this full Mavericks roster on the court yet.

One of the more intriguing aspects from Dallas' preseason is the fact that marquee free agent addition Klay Thompson made his debut for the Mavericks, as Thompson has played in each of Dallas' last two games. Thompson's first game left fans biting at the apple for more, as Thompson played stellar defense and canned a few shots from outside.

However, against the LA Clippers on Monday night, Thompson shot an abysmal 0-9 from the field and had four turnovers. While the Mavericks lineup was severely limited from a shot creation standpoint without Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, Thompson's second preseason performance with the Mavericks was poor in all facets, even if it's just a mere preseason contest.

Jason Kidd is setting expectations for Klay Thompson too high

Given some of Thompson's lackluster shooting performances with the Golden State Warriors last season as well as the fact that his defense has declined a decent bit since he tore his Achilles and ACL, it's understandable as to why there's some hesitation from talking heads as to how good Thompson can actually be with the Mavericks.

While the idealistic PR play from the Mavericks' staff in this scenario would likely be to ease some of the sky-high expectations off of Thompson, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd did the exact opposite of that in his pregame interview on Monday evening.

Kidd said Thompson is "still a superstar," which objectively isn't true at this stage in Thompson's career. Thompson still has the ability to be a high-level contributing role player on this Dallas squad, and possibly even an All-Star if the Mavericks see enough team success this season, but Kidd is setting the bar too high for Thompson in this instance.

This makes sense from Kidd and the Mavericks' perspective if they are doing this to try and instill some confidence in Thompson and his game, even if Thompson's production these last few seasons hasn't been at the level that it was when he was in his younger pre-injury days. However, if the Mavericks and Kidd genuinely think that Thompson will be a superstar for this Mavericks team this season, they are setting him up for failure with such expectations.

At 34 years old, Thompson averaged 17.9 points per game and played in 77 contests last season for the Warriors, which speaks volumes to the consistency he still brings to the table given his age and injury history. Thompson can very well bring that same type of production to Dallas this season, and he may even fare better defensively since he likely won't be asked to shot-create as much for the Mavs.

However, Thompson playing a stellar 3-and-D role for the Mavericks this season wouldn't equate to him being a "superstar," and it would take him making a drastic change to his game at this age to be considered in that category. Perhaps Kidd is more lenient in terms of his definition of a superstar compared to others, as most NBA analysts don't throw around that term lightly.

This doesn't seem like anything to lose sleep over if you are a Mavericks fan, though it will be interesting to monitor what expectations Kidd and the Mavericks organization have for Thompson as the season progresses.