Mychal Thompson isn’t interested in the “Klay Thompson is washed” talk.
With Klay Thompson now with the Heat after his buyout with the Mavericks, the noise around him has only gotten louder. The four-time NBA champion is heading into his 14th NBA season in 2026-27, and plenty of critics have already decided he’s past his prime and no longer a player who can help a championship-contending team.
Mychal Thompson, Klay’s father and a two-time NBA champion himself, pushed back hard on that idea in a recent interview with SiriusXM.
“If people don’t think Klay can be Klay anymore, leave him open. Don’t guard him.
Don’t face guard him. I see people still bear-hugging him and not leaving him open for a second.
So if he’s not Klay anymore, leave him open and give him open shots. Let’s see what happens,” Mychal Thompson said in a recent interview with SiriusXM.
The challenge comes with real edge because Klay is coming off the worst season of his career. In 2025-26 with the Mavericks, he eventually settled into a bench role and finished with averages of 11.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game while shooting 39.3% from the field and 38.3% from three.
That rough season is a big reason the skepticism has taken hold. He shot below 40% from the field for the first time in his career, and that’s the kind of number critics latch onto fast.
Still, Mychal Thompson went even further and called 2026-27 a championship-or-bust season for the Heat since his son arrived there. That kind of confidence makes sense coming from a father, but it also raises the stakes if Klay doesn’t deliver, because social media won’t be shy about using it against him.
Draymond Green was the first to call out the way Thompson has been dragged into public scrutiny, though he made it clear he wasn’t saying Klay is washed. His point was narrower: Klay is no longer the kind of player who can be the second-option scorer behind Giannis Antetokounmpo in Miami the way he once was behind Stephen Curry in Golden State.
Even with the dip in production, leaving Klay Thompson alone on the perimeter is still a dangerous idea. Miami brought him in to stretch the floor, especially on a roster that doesn’t have a ton of shooters, and that alone makes it hard to imagine opponents simply backing off him in game plans.
So Mychal Thompson’s challenge sounds less like bravado than belief - a father backing his son with conviction. Whether any team actually takes him up on it and leaves Klay wide open will be one of the more interesting things to watch once the season gets going.
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