It only took 7 games for Klay Thompson to reach crushing Mavericks fate

In his eighth game of the season, Klay Thompson was benched by Jason Kidd in favor of D'Angelo Russell.

Heading into tonight's game against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Dallas Mavericks were 2-5 on the year, and it was obvious that they needed some sort of offensive change. They posted the worst offensive rating in the NBA through these first seven games, and adding Russell into the starting unit could be the juice they need to get trending in the right direction.

Starting Cooper Flagg at point guard did not work out as well as Mavericks fans had hoped, and their lack of an on-ball shot creator sank their offense, and Thompson's early-season production. Russell is one of the few players on the roster who can create for others and hit his teammates in the right spots, and this was a needed next step when seeing how much better Dallas looks when he is on the floor.

Klay Thompson got benched for the first time as a Maverick

On the other hand, for Thompson, this may have been some news that he didn't take lightly. Of course, Thompson is a pro and is locked in on winning, but coming off the bench is not something that he seems very fond of.

Outside of his rookie year and his final season in Golden State, Thompson had started in every game of his NBA career, and when he did come off the bench, he wasn't very happy about it. There was definitely some frustration from Thompson's end when he was coming off the bench in favor of Brandin Podziemski during his final season in the Bay, and he could be up in arms about being sent to the bench at the beginning of his second full season in Dallas.

Thompson being benched was definitely warranted considering how poorly he had been playing, as he was averaging a career-low 8.1 points per game while shooting a career-low 26.2 percent from three over his first seven games, and Max Christie was clearly outplaying him every game.

Even before he got sent to the bench, Thompson was playing much less than Christie, and it was obvious that some sort of change was coming. Kidd had to try something different to get his offense going, and Thompson coming off the bench was a logical option that he rolled the dice with.

It remains to be seen if this change will be enough for the Mavericks to snap out of this seemingly never-ending funk that has plagued their season, and all eyes will be on Thompson to see how he responds to coming off the bench.

It didn't take long for him to be forced into the fate that he won't be Dallas' starting shooting guard anymore, and who knows, this could be the change he needed to get into a groove.