The Heat have already done the heavy lifting this offseason, but the roster still has a clear hole to patch: shooting. After bringing in Giannis Antetokounmpo, Miami has had to work around the cost of that kind of move, and the result is a team that still needs more perimeter help.
Simone Fontecchio is back, Tim Hardaway Jr. is in the mix, and both bring real value as three-point threats. Even so, that probably doesn’t close the book on Miami’s need for another dependable shooter. There are a few names that could surface, but one possibility has been sitting in the background while the louder buyout chatter swirls around DeMar DeRozan and Zach Lavine.
That name is Klay Thompson.
A future Hall of Famer with multiple championships, Thompson has been floated as a buyout candidate by several outlets going back to the middle of last season. After Luka Doncic was traded, that conversation only seemed to make more sense.
The buzz faded for a while, but it has started to build again, and longtime Heat reporter Ira Winderman has also pointed to Thompson as a possible buyout addition. The idea is simple: Miami needs shooting, and Thompson still has plenty of it.
His career numbers back that up. Thompson has hit 40.9% of his threes over 13 seasons, a remarkable figure for any player, let alone one who has sustained it for that long.
And this isn’t just a case of leaning on old highlights. Over the past two years with the Dallas Mavericks, he has still knocked down 38.7% from deep.
That matters for a Heat team looking for someone who can punish defenses without needing the ball to be spoon-fed to him. Thompson has long made his living by slipping into open pockets and thriving next to players who draw extra attention.
Put him alongside Antetokounmpo, and the fit is obvious. Defenses would have to choose between giving Thompson a clean look or letting Antetokounmpo handle his defender alone.
Either way, it’s trouble.
There’s also the availability factor. Thompson missed two full seasons because of injury, but outside of that stretch, he has generally been on the floor. Only one other season in his career has featured fewer than 66 games, and that was the 32-game return year after those devastating injuries.
If the Mavericks do buy him out, Miami should be all over it. The Heat would be getting one of the most accomplished shooters the game has ever seen, and exactly the kind of perimeter weapon their roster still needs.
In Other News...
Mavericks Finally Land Long-Stashed Shooter After One Major Hurdle
Tarik Biberovic is finally on the verge of making the move the Mavericks have had his rights stashed for, with the 24-year-old wing informing Fenerbahce that he will leave the EuroLeague to sign in Dallas. The deal is expected to run two years and carry a second-year team option, a tidy bit of business for a team still looking to add shooting and long-term flexibility around its core.
The path to getting it done was not simple, though, and the timing mattered. Biberovic had to clear an opt-out deadline tied to his Fenerbahce contract, and the Mavericks also had to navigate the buyout process under NBA rules before the signing could become official. For Dallas, it is the kind of overseas holdover resolution that can quietly matter, especially when a player has been on the radar long enough to become part of the franchises future planning. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks May Have Finally Fixed The Problem Around Cooper Flagg
The Mavericks spent the offseason attacking the same flaw that showed up too often last year: too many lineups that could not punish defenses from the perimeter. Through the 2026 draft and a series of trades, Dallas has added a cluster of players who at least bring shooting into the conversation, including Morez Johnson Jr., Sergio De Larrea and the draft rights to Vsevolod Ishchenko, while also bringing in Santi Aldama and Marcus Sasser to help reshape the spacing around Cooper Flagg.
Aldama is the most intriguing of the bunch because he gives Dallas a 7-foot forward who can stretch the floor, and Sasser offers another backcourt option who can score and shoot from deep. The bigger question now is how much of this shooting makeover actually sticks once the roster is finalized, because the Mavericks still have one more move in the pipeline that could determine whether this really is the fix they were looking for. [Read more 🡒]
Lakers Are Chasing Luka's Old Mavs Formula For Better Or Worse
The Lakers latest roster-building push has a familiar feel for anyone who watched Luka Doncic operate in Dallas, because the pieces around him are starting to resemble the kind of setup the Mavericks used in 2024. The comparison is obvious in the way Los Angeles is trying to match up key positions and give Doncic the same sort of structural support that helped Dallas reach the Finals, even if the exact names and fit are not identical.
But there is a reason this kind of copycat approach comes with caution attached. Dallas version of the formula did not end with a championship, and the Lakers still have to answer the same kind of roster questions that can make or break a contender, especially on the wing where a dependable perimeter defender remains a major need. For Los Angeles, the challenge is not just looking like the Mavericks did, but proving the blueprint can actually take a team all the way. [Read more 🡒]