For so long, it seemed like the trio of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, a trio that formed the core of a Golden State Warriors dynasty that won four championships together, would all stay in Golden State together for the entirety of their career. 

While Curry and Green have remained in the Bay, Thompson has since moved on, first when he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 2024 as part of a six-team trade and Thompson has since signed with the Miami Heat, joining Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. 

But Thompson's exodus may have happened a lot sooner and on his own terms if soem circumstances were different, as Green shared in a recent episode of his podcast "The Draymond Green Show."

"What I will also say is, [it was] highly likely that after the 2019 playoffs, Klay Thompson was going to leave the Golden State Warriors and go be a No. 1 option somewhere. Highly f--king likely," Green said. "Then he got hurt, and so he stayed. But one thing I can assure you, there was a 90% chance that my brother was going to leave Golden State and go elsewhere and test that No. 1 option thing out."

The basis of Green's revelation was that Thompson's desire to leave Golden State was rooted in a desire to become the star and the No. 1 option of another team, finally stepping out of Curry's shadow. 

What made the Warriors so impressive was the fact that Curry ad Thompson were arguable the two best three point shooters in the world and they just so happened to be sharing the backcourt together, with Curry's skill dwarfing Thompsons's, as impressive as Thompson was. 

In a different circumstance, Thompson would have easily been the star of his own team and after winning three championships as one half of the "Splash Brothers" with Curry, he may have felt it was time to strike out on his own.

But as Green mentioned, Thompson became the victim of two devastating back-to-back injuries. 

First, he tore his left ACL during Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors, putting him out for the entirety of the 2019-2020 season and tore his right Achilles during an offseason workout while trying to recover from his ACL tear, putting him down again. 

Just like that, Thompson had missed two full surgeries due to the two most notorious injuries in basketball, with both legs affected, as while he eventually made his comeback and even won another championship with the Warriors, the prospect of him striking out on his own evaporated. 

In the years since, Thompson's production how slowly declined and now the idea of him becoming a No. 1 option is firmly impossible, but looking back it's easy to see a world where Thompson stayed healthy after 2019 and did leave the Warriors on his own volition, changing the course of the Warriors far earlier.