Evaluating Klay Thompson's performance in the Mavericks' preseason debut

The Dallas Mavericks began their preseason on Monday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, despite Dallas missing nearly half of their roster from the contest for various reasons. The Mavericks brought back Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving for their second preseason game tonight against the Utah Jazz, in which they lost 107-102 as Thompson made his first official debut in a Mavericks jersey.

Even though it was still preseason, fans were excited to see Thompson on the pitch for Dallas for the first time, as every time he scored a goal, Thompson received loud applause, even though the arena wasn't full.

While it's important for obvious reasons that we don't overstate Thompson's preseason debut, especially since Thompson only played 18 minutes in the first half, it's certainly fair to assess how well he played in that game, since We've been longing to see how he'll fit into this Mavericks team for months.

From the start, it looked like Thompson was trying to shake off the nerves that came with making a debut for an entirely new team for the first time in his career, as Thompson hit a couple of wide-open shots from mid-range early on fired game. However, Thompson's seriousness as a shooter on offense was evident the second he got the ball, as opposing defenders bit off almost all of his pump fakes off the catch.

Thompson finished the game with 10 points and three assists on 3-for-9 shooting from the field, although he made 3-for-5 of his shots from downtown. Thompson showed on multiple occasions a willingness to allow some open throws for a better shot and proved comfortable in the pick-and-roll with center Dereck Lively II.

Just like Golden State, Dallas will be able to start some offense through Thompson because of his underrated passing skills and the fact that he can get up and shoot from anywhere on the court, even if Thompson isn't necessarily a dynamic ball handler.

After a few back-and-forths on multiple attempts, Thompson finally started to get his rhythm going in the second quarter, as all of his three-point shots came in the second quarter. It's only preseason, but Thompson seemed to move around the court very well as he flew out of the pin-downs to get free for some of his three-point shots in the second quarter.

The 34-year-old's conditioning also carried over to the defense, as Thompson played top-notch on-ball defense in the contest and effectively defended multiple positions. The Mavericks and Jason Kidd continued to tinker with a zone defense for much of the first half, and when Dallas switched to it, Thompson had no real mistakes on defense.

The fact that Thompson would be a liability defensively was the biggest concern for fans when he signed with Dallas, given his injury history and poor defense in Golden State, although Thompson was far from that on Thursday night.

There is still a lot of time left in the season before we can properly assess Thompson's defense, and it will be interesting to see if Thompson burns down the profile at this point as the season progresses, even if all signs point to Thompson being the least above average in this year. While Thompson's elite shooting ability wasn't on display in this competition, he did all the little things right and seemed to fit seamlessly into Dallas' system in his debut, earning him a B+ for his preseason debut.