The Warriors reportedly had an opportunity to reunite with a former star player.
Before Klay Thompson agreed to sign a reported three-year, $50 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers -- one of Thompson's reported suitors in free agency -- made a strong offer to the veteran guard.
The Lakers offered Thompson a multi-year contract that was set to pay him approximately $20 million annually in a sign-and-trade deal with Golden State that would have sent guard D'Angelo Russell back to the Warriors, TNT's Chris Haynes reported Monday.
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"I was told the Lakers made a pretty compelling offer, it was around a three-, four-year mark," Haynes said on Bleacher Report. "Somewhere along the lines of $20 million per [year] and they didn't get their guy. And it was going to take obviously a sign-and-trade scenario so that had nothing to do with LeBron James' decision to take less. It was going to take a sign-and-trade to get Klay and it just did not happen.
"I was told it likely would have involved D'Angelo Russell being a part of a deal to get Klay and from what I was told the Warriors weren't interested in bringing back D'Angelo Russell."
This would not have been the first time the Warriors replaced Thompson with Russell through a sign-and-trade deal. After Thompson suffered a torn ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals, Golden State completed a three-team sign-and-trade with the Brooklyn Nets and the Minnesota Timberwolves on July 1, 2019, that sent superstar forward Kevin Durant to Brooklyn, Russell to Golden State and Shabazz Napier, Treveon Graham, cash and a future first-round pick to Minnesota.
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In his 33 games with the Warriors during the 2019-20 NBA season, Russell averaged 23.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game on 43-percent shooting from the field and 37.4 percent from 3-point range as the secondary scorer to Steph Curry with Thompson sidelined for the entire season.
The 28-year-old point guard averaged 18 points, 3.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game on 45.6-percent shooting from the field and 41.5 percent from 3-point range in 76 games with the Lakers during last season.
The Warriors, clearly, were not interested.