The Miami Heat’s longest-running offseason storyline finally produced movement this weekend, and it happened in a conversation the Heat were not part of.
NBA insider Marc Stein reported Sunday night that new Dallas Mavericks president Masai Ujiri has been in direct contact with Klay Thompson this offseason about the veteran’s uncertain future, the first concrete indication that the two sides of the sport’s most closely watched standoff are actually talking to each other.
For Miami, that detail cuts both ways. Stein reported that the Heat continue to lead the group of teams hoping Dallas buys out Thompson’s expiring contract, but he also wrote that there has “indeed been direct contact this offseason” between Ujiri and Thompson while the Mavericks have held the same position since mid-June: They would rather trade the four-time champion than pay him to leave.
Two sources briefed on the process told Stein that Thompson’s fate remained undecided as of Sunday. Hours after the Stein note started circulating Monday, the Miami side of the equation checked in.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald wrote on X that there was nothing new on the Thompson front as of Sunday night, then removed any remaining ambiguity about the target: “That’s who Heat wants. Period.”
For those asking, nothing new on Klay Thompson front as of last night. As @EthanJSkolnick and @Anthony_Chiang and I have reported, that's who Heat wants. Period. Miami wants to get him via buyout unless Dallas surprisingly finds trade partner. Ethan reports that Klay wants to…
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) August 17, 2026
Again, Miami intends to land Thompson through a buyout unless Dallas surprises everyone by finding a trade partner.
Ujiri and Thompson have talked, and Dallas still wants a trade
The Ujiri detail matters because the standoff had been defined by silence. Thompson has not approached the Mavericks about a buyout, and Dallas has spent two months insisting it would only move him for value.
Direct dialogue between the team president and the player does not mean a resolution is close, but it does mean the Mavericks are actively working through what to do with him rather than letting the situation drift into training camp.
Stein’s reporting also laid out why Dallas feels no urgency. The Mavericks want something back for an expiring $17.46 million salary that could appeal to any contender seeking shooting without a long-term commitment.
Miami sits first in the buyout line precisely because a buyout is the one path that costs the Heat nothing, which is also exactly why Dallas has resisted it.
In Miami, the message has not changed
The Heat plan to keep their remaining roster spots open long enough to give Thompson time to shake free in a buyout, a patience-first approach that has now outlasted most of the free agent market.
Ethan Skolnick went further on the player’s side of the equation. The Five on the Floor host said he believes a buyout is coming because the interest runs in both directions.
“He wants to play for the Miami Heat,” Skolnick said, adding that he expects it to happen eventually.
That patience has already carried a price. The Heat had spoken with Bradley Beal’s representatives earlier in free agency, but Thompson remained the preferred option, and Beal ended the conversation by returning to the Los Angeles Clippers on a two-year, $13.2 million deal.
Miami’s shooting board keeps getting shorter while the front office waits on Dallas, a waiting game the Heat have been playing since trade talks first stalled.
The Oct. 19 deadline is the pressure point
If nothing else forces a decision, the calendar will. Dallas currently carries 16 players on standard contracts, one more than the regular-season maximum, and must get to 15 by Oct. 19.
That deadline gives Ujiri roughly two months to find a trade, negotiate a buyout or move a different player entirely, because the roster crunch does not guarantee Thompson is the one who goes.
The trade math explains why Miami has stayed out of that lane. Acquiring Thompson by trade would require matching salary, and Nikola Jovic’s $16.2 million figure is the cleanest fit on the roster.
The Heat have already decided that surrendering a 23-year-old forward on a multiyear contract for one season of a 36-year-old shooter is a nonstarter, a stance Miami hardened last week when it took Jovic off the table.
A buyout, by contrast, would let Miami sign Thompson into the midlevel exception money it has deliberately preserved for him while spending nothing in players or picks.
The risk in that plan is the same one that has shadowed it all summer. A bought-out Thompson becomes a free agent who can sign anywhere, and the Lakers have loomed over this pursuit for weeks, a threat that surfaced when Dallas first explored the trade market. Being first in line only matters if the door ever opens.
What Thompson would bring to the Giannis era
The basketball case has never been complicated. Miami’s new core of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo does the bulk of its damage inside the arc, and the roster around them is short on the kind of shooter defenses refuse to leave.
Thompson, averaged 11.7 points per game last season while hitting 202 3-pointers at a 38.3 percent clip, and he did most of that damage in a reserve role, starting just 8 of his 69 appearances. The volume and accuracy both remain real even as everything else in his game has aged.
Thompson has also been open about what he is looking for at this stage. Speaking on a recent Twitch stream, the five-time All-Star said he wants to “play a role on a team that can make a deep playoff run,” whether that comes this season or next.
Mavericks G/F Klay Thompson says that he wants to compete for a championship, not necessarily win one, but have the chance to compete and try and win a title and play a role on a team that can make a deep playoff run #MFFL
(🎥: @PlaqueBoyMax Twitch) pic.twitter.com/gEpG18RDhi
— Kevin Gray Jr. (@KevinGraySports) August 14, 2026
A defined shooting role next to two stars on a team with playoff expectations is close to a word-for-word description of what Miami is offering, even as the betting market has cooled on the Heat’s first Giannis season.
There are only two ways this ends for Miami. Either Dallas concludes before Oct. 19 that no acceptable trade exists and negotiates the buyout the Heat have been counting on, or Ujiri finds a taker for that expiring contract and Thompson’s next conversation with Miami never happens.
The Heat have bet their offseason on the first outcome, and after this weekend, the side holding all the leverage is at least picking up the phone.
