Mavericks' key 'dramatic difference' will take them back to the NBA Finals

The Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA world last season when they went from a likely play-in team to the Western Conference champions in just a few short months. Dallas' two trades at the trade deadline for Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington helped turn their season around, and they turned into a playoff juggernaut due to them being so hot at the end of the regular season.

Dallas took down the LA Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Minnesota Timberwolves en route to the NBA Finals, but Dallas lost in five games to the Boston Celtics.

No one on the Mavs could knock down an open shot, and they decided to focus on adding shooting in the offseason.

Dallas ended up signing Klay Thompson to a three-year, $51 million deal, and this move is poised to help the Mavs return back to the playoffs and make another NBA Finals push.

Klay Thompson changes everything for the Dallas Mavericks

On NBA Today, ESPN's Tim Legler said that Thompson is someone he has an eye on to have a good comeback season, and he is high on what he can do on the Mavs.

"His impact on Dallas and the number of shots that he is going to get as opposed to the guys that were taking those same exact shots a year ago, you're going to see a dramatic difference in Dallas with Klay Thompson," Legler stated.

The Mavs' kryptonite in the Finals was partially the fact that role players couldn't make open shots off the catch, and this is going to change with Thompson on the roster. Going from having Tim Hardaway Jr., Derrick Jones Jr., and Josh Green taking open shots to Thompson is going to be a massive step in the right direction, and Dallas could end up being the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA next season.

Dallas was still in the top five in 3-pointers made last season, and they are going to be even better in this area with the addition of Thompson. The "dramatic difference" of Thompson taking these open shots rather than the Mavs' shooters from last year can't be undermined, but there is also going to be a big difference with Thompson himself.

He is going from playing somewhere where he felt disrespected and was in a major funk to somewhere where he wants to be and they want him back. Dallas made signing Thompson their main priority this summer, and he wanted to be a Maverick badly.

Thompson saw how Dallas played in the playoffs, envisioned how he'd fit, and made this dream fit a reality and signed with the Mavs. Dallas' offense won't have to rely on Thompson as heavily as the Golden State Warriors' offense did, and Jason Kidd is going to make things easy for him.

While Dallas may run some set plays and actions for him, his success will hinge on hitting standstill threes off the catch. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving create a countless amount of these looks, and the Mavs will be more deadly than ever before if he can sink these open looks.

Having Thompson in Dallas as a shooter is going to be a big change from anything we've seen in the Luka era, and he and Doncic have the chance to form one of the league's deadliest duos. Irving and Doncic is still going to be the main duo you think of when talking about the Mavs, but the Thompson-Doncic duo is going to be elite as well due to the defensive attention that they both command.

Doncic has elite on-ball gravity while Thompson has unbelievable off-ball gravity due to his out-of-this-world shooting. Now imagine these two games on the same team.

That's exactly what the Mavs did, and Thompson's addition to this team has created a monster that the rest of the Western Conference should fear.