Klay Thompson Passed on the Lakers Over Anthony Davis Injury Fears
A new report says Thompson's 2024 free-agency call came down to doubts about AD's durability. The fantasy irony? He and Davis only shared 27 games in Dallas anyway.
Elite when he plays, but the availability risk is baked in — cash the name.
- Thompson chose Dallas over LA in summer 2024
- AD played 42 of 47 games before the trade
- Thompson + AD shared just 27 games total
- Davis: 44.2 FPTS/G in 20 games (2025-26)
- Thompson: 17.8 FPTS/G, our #245 (2025-26)
A fresh report has re-lit one of the 2024 offseason's stranger what-ifs: Klay Thompson reportedly turned down the Lakers and signed with Dallas partly because he was worried about Anthony Davis staying healthy. The Lakers pushed hard for Thompson, with LeBron reportedly willing to take a pay cut to make the money work, and Thompson has deep LA roots — he grew up there and still owns a home in the city.
He said no anyway. According to a source familiar with his thinking, Davis' injury history was one of the reasons Thompson picked the Mavs over the purple and gold. What makes it sting is the punchline: Thompson ended up sharing just 27 games with Davis in Dallas across roughly a season and a half, thanks to — you guessed it — injuries to AD.
The irony runs deeper. Davis was actually in the healthiest stretch of his Lakers tenure right when Thompson was deciding, playing 42 of 47 games before being dealt, after a 76-game campaign the year prior. Then the butterfly effect kicked in: Luka Doncic landed in LA, Davis went to Dallas and then to Washington, and the whole board got reshuffled.
What It Means For Your Roster
Here's the part that matters for fantasy managers in 2026-27. Davis, now with the Wizards, still profiles as a stud when active — he's our #13 overall (#5 at his position) and put up 44.2 fantasy points per game across 20 appearances last season (2025-26). The number is beautiful. The sample size is the whole problem.
That last-five-game trend last season sat 7.3 fantasy points below his own average, and 20 games played tells you everything about the risk. If you own Davis and someone in your league values the name more than the calendar, this is a textbook sell-high window. Lock in a durable, higher-floor asset and let the next manager gamble on the availability.
As for Thompson himself, there's nothing to chase. He averaged 11.7 points and 17.8 fantasy points per game over 69 games last season (2025-26), landing at our #245 overall (#111 at his position). He's a deep-league dart at best. The story is a fun sliding-doors moment — but only Davis carries real fantasy weight, and that weight comes with an asterisk.
