Klay Thompson's fatal flaw could wreck Mavericks' bold D'Angelo Russell plan

The Dallas Mavericks dramatically addressed their frontcourt defense over the past season, as Dallas has one of the most loaded and lengthy frontlines in the entire NBA, but Dallas' perimeter defense fared moderately to end last season, despite one of Nico Harrison's main reasons for trading Luka Doncic being because Dallas wanted to upgrade their defense across the board.

Dallas has some juice in terms of their perimeter defenders off the bench, as Max Christie is quick and wiry at the point of attack, and Caleb Martin has great lateral quickness and strength, but the Mavericks could potentially struggle on the perimeter with their starting lineup next season. Kyrie Irving is a serviceable point-of-attack defender, especially since he can compensate some of his lack of size with great defensive intangibles and gives great effort on that end when it matters most, but he'll be missing an indefinite amount of time to start next season and Dallas brought in D'Angelo Russell to fill Irving's void in the mean time.

Dallas could go ultra big and start P.J. Washington or Cooper Flagg at the two, but if they roll with bringing Washington off the bench and decide to start Klay Thompson, then they may have a rough go on the perimeter defensively, as Russell and Thompson are both out of their athletics primes and are not as quick-footed as they used to be, especially Thompson.

Mavs' perimeter defense in their starting unit could be rough next season

While Thompson still has his moments in terms of being able to clamp down some wings and guards with less quickness, he's definitely not the same player he was in Golden State as far as his one-on-one defense is concerned, and defense has never been one of Russell's calling cards despite being 6-foot-4.

With both Thompson and Russell potentially starting in the backcourt for Dallas, the Mavericks could struggle mightily in terms of their 3-point defense and opposing team's guard penetration on the rim, and the Mavericks will have to rely heavily on their frontline to compensate for Russell and Thompson's lack of athleticism at times.

While the Mavericks certainly have the ability to do this, they won't be able to get away with that when playing against some of the better teams in the league, so their lack of perimeter defense could certainly raise questions in regard to if Thompson and Russell are the ideal duo to start in the backcourt together until Irving returns.

There's still a little under two months till Jason Kidd and company will start trying different lineups in preseason and training camp, and by no means should Mavericks fans expect Thompson and Russell starting together to be a given, but it wouldn't be surprising if they roll out as day one starters given their veteran acumen and playoff experience, especially in Thompson's case.

However, perhaps Thompson is the most likely of the two to potentially come off the bench at some point, as Dallas needs Russell's shot creation and ball handling more than anything with Irving out of the lineup, even though Thompson is a far better defender than Russell by most metrics. It will be interesting to see if the Mavericks end up surviving or thriving if Kidd ultimately rolls out a starting backcourt of Russell and Thompson, as someone like Christie or Martin could greatly reduce the defensive concerns that would stem from such a lineup.