DALLAS — Dallas Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz went on 1310 The Ticket on Friday minutes after the team announced its buyout agreement with Klay Thompson. Schmitz pointed to the statement Masai Ujiri released earlier in the day and said Thompson has won at the highest level.
“Very thankful for everything Klay brought to the Mavericks organization,” Schmitz said. “Obviously a competitor, a champion, an all-time great shooter, and really thankful for his contributions to the team and the city and the organization, and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
Mike Schmitz On The Talks Behind The Klay Thompson Buyout
Thompson was owed $17.5 million this coming season, the final year of his contract. He is expected to sign with the Miami Heat once he clears waivers, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Friday.
Dallas looked for a trade before the buyout. Asked whether the Mavericks let Thompson pick his destination once one did not come together, Schmitz turned the answer back to what Thompson gave the organization.
“I don’t want to get into too much of the nitty-gritty with internal conversations and all that,” Schmitz explained. “More than anything, just like I said, thankful for everything Klay has given to the team, the organization, the city, and wish him the best moving forward in the rest of the season.”
Mike Schmitz On The Group Dallas Has Left
The buyout takes Dallas from 16 players on standard contracts to 15. The league limit drops to 15 on Oct. 19.
Schmitz sees the roster as a blend of the offseason additions and the players who were already in the building when the new front office arrived in the spring.
“You want a culture of competition, a healthy competition where guys are fighting for minutes and the level is raised,” Schmitz said. “And I think you’re going to see that with some of the depth that you mentioned, and making sure that every practice, every game, every shootaround, everything is incredibly competitive and there’s something at stake. And so we feel like some of the additions we’ve made will help kind of foster that competitiveness, along with a lot of the guys who were on the roster when we got here.”
Cooper Flagg started all 70 games he played as a rookie and averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. Max Christie started 68 times in 77 appearances and shot 40.4% from 3-point range on 5.8 attempts a game. Naji Marshall signed a three-year, $52.2 million extension on Aug. 2 that runs through 2029-30, and he started 47 games last season. P.J. Washington started 53 of the 56 games he played and is signed through 2029-30 as well. Thompson started 8 games, a career low.
Zaccharie Risacher arrived in a three-team trade on July 19. Santi Aldama and Marcus Sasser came in a separate six-team deal that also sent Dallas the draft rights to Tarik Biberović, who signed in July after three seasons in Istanbul.
Schmitz joined the Mavericks this offseason under Ujiri. Dallas hired Mavericks coach Dusty May in June, a week after he guided Michigan to the 2026 national championship.
Camp opens Sept. 22. Dallas is one of six teams starting early, each with preseason games outside North America. The regular season begins Oct. 21 against the Houston Rockets. Tip-off in Houston is set for 7:30 p.m. CT.
