The Miami Heat just landed Klay Thompson after the latter cleared waivers with the Dallas Mavericks, setting Giannis Antetokounmpo up with another elite floor-spacer for this next era of his career. And if Giannis-and-shooters looks familiar to you, that's because it is.
The Miami Heat look awfully similar to the Giannis-era Milwaukee Bucks
He's no superstar at this juncture in his career, but Klay Thompson just completed Miami's Bucks-like Giannis roster. He put up just 11.7 points per game this past season for Dallas, but he's still a competent defender on top of a 38 percent shooting clip from deep, which is already more than enough spacing to pair next to the All-World inward gravity of the Greek Freak.
Each iteration of the past era of the Bucks had that one player who could space the floor for Antetokounmpo to make opposing defenses think twice before helping from the corner. First it was Kyle Korver. During the championship season, it was Bryn Forbes and Pat Connaughton. Towards the end it was AJ Green. Now Antetokounmpo has a Splash Brother with him.
While many might look at Thompson and see a fading star at the twilight of his career, it's clear he still has something left in the tank for another playoff run or two. He's obviously not as spry as he once was, but per NBA.com/stats, Thompson held opposing guards to 94-of-238 or 39.5 percent field goal efficiency this past season. He's not the scoring whiz of the Dynasty Warriors, but he's a more than capable 3-and-D guard who can stretch the floor and slow down scoring guards with his size.
Thompson may not be the Khris Middleton to Giannis Antetokounmpo for this team, but he can still certainly be one of Pat Connaughton or AJ Green, who were important to the team's success at their peaks.
Miami looks like the second coming of the Fear the Dear Bucks
The thing with this Heat team is that it's not just Thompson, either. Just look at the rest of the roster and a pattern quickly emerges.
For instance, Davion Mitchell perfectly slots in as the defensive guard to play at the point of attack in the same way that Jrue Holiday did. Andrew Wiggins is the versatile, do-it-all wing ala Khris Middleton or even Kyle Kuzma. Bobby Portis is still the ever-reliable enforcer and energy-setting big next to Giannis. And Bam Adebayo is the switchable, defensive big who can give Antetokounmpo what he never got out of Myles Turner.
The point is that Miami has assembled shooting, perimeter defense, wing versatility and a mobile defensive big around Giannis. That's basically the formula Milwaukee spent years chasing. And while the Bucks had Giannis first, the Heat had the benefit of watching Milwaukee's mistakes through all those years grinding it out against one another for the Eastern Conference.
These latest moves from Pat Riley and company prove that Miami is building the kind of roster around Giannis that Milwaukee saw great success with and then spent years trying to rebuild again. Could this work out in their favor? Only time will tell.
Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks analysis.
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