(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
The Golden State Warriors’ dynasty is on its last legs, and the team could be headed toward a crossroads this summer.

Klay Thompson, the second-best player on each of their four championship teams over the past decade, will be a free agent, and it will be very expensive for the team to keep him.

Perhaps that is a reason why former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce thinks he will be playing for a different team next season, per Legion Hoops.

Thompson is one of the NBA’s greatest 3-point shooters of all time, and he should eventually end up getting inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Warriors fans will never forget some of his timely eruptions in the playoffs, especially in several Game 6 matchups that helped the team reach the NBA Finals six times in eight seasons.

But Thompson hasn’t been the same ever since he tore his ACL in 2019 and then tore his Achilles in 2020, and while he has shown some flashes of his old self since, he is clearly over the hill.

While he’s shooting a strong 38.2 percent from 3-point range this season, he’s at just 42.5 percent overall, and he even lost his starting job a few times this year.

If Golden State, who is currently clinging to 10th place in the Western Conference, is to become competitive again, it needs an infusion of young talent, and letting go of Thompson may be the only way to make that happen.

They currently have a ton of money tied up between him, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green, and getting their financial house in order would likely be their first step back to viability.