LeBron James is hungry. Kevin Love is nearing full health, Kyrie Irving is approaching it, too, and the Cleveland Cavaliers seem primed to defend their Eastern Conference crown – at the absolute least – on the opening day of training camp. But there’s just one problem for the wine-and-gold: one of their most impactful performers is still missing.
After the Cavaliers rejected his contractual compromise last week, Tristan Thompson will reportedly be absent from Monday’s media proceedings at Quicken Loans Arena. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has more on the state of Cleveland’s negotiations with its disgruntled big man.
It now seems likely Thompson will miss the start of practice Tuesday but the sides are not framing the situation as a holdout at this point. Thompson has until Thursday to accept the Cavs’ one-year qualifying offer of $6.9 million that would enable him to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
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By Thursday, Thompson must either agree to a new long-term contract, sign the qualifying offer or mutually agree with the Cavs to extend the qualifying offer deadline further and a holdout situation becomes legitimate.
There hasn’t been much agreement on anything as talks yielded no progress over the weekend.
We argued in favor of the Cavaliers accepting the three-year, $53 million deal Thompson and agent Rich Paul submitted to the team last week. General manager David Griffin and company have little to no leverage when it comes to these discussions – Cleveland is capped-out, meaning the only way it could replace the versatile, defensive-oriented big man would be with a trade. And Thompson, obviously, is fully aware that the only factor prohibiting the Cavaliers from giving him a max-level deal is the effect on Dan Gilbert’s billionaire pockets.
Thompson said earlier this summer that he wouldn’t hesitate playing 2015-16 on a one-year qualifying offer if Cleveland couldn’t satisfy his demands. More troubling for Griffin was Paul’s accompanying contention that doing so would effectively end his client’s long-term relationship with the Cavaliers, and that Thompson would sign a maximum contract with a competing team in unrestricted free agency next summer.
Don’t be surprised when the reigning Eastern Conference champions finally bites the bullet before Thursday’s deadline – they just have nowhere else to go, and there’s no incumbent on the roster capable of replicating what Thompson brings to the table. Either way, Cleveland fans shouldn’t worry. Even the worst-case scenario – Thompson playing this season in Cleveland and then bolting next July – would have a merely negligible effect on their team’s title chances in 2015-16.
(Via ESPN)
