“It’s kind of like the elephant in the room all over, for everybody,” James told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin in Independence, Ohio, where the Cavs are holding training camp. “Hopefully some resolve can happen sooner than later. You know, obviously, we continue to say, I continue to say how his value to us is extreme, as we saw last year in the postseason, throughout the season.”
LeBron’s talking about Tristan Thompson, of course, the backup power forward whose status as a holdout has made him front and center on the longest-running contract dispute of the offseason.
Except, after James and Thompson spent Saturday at the wedding of a mutual friend, LeBron posted a pic of the pair to Instagram. The caption that read, “Get it done!!!” appeared to put the onus on the Cavs to get a deal done.
“I’m not here to talk about numbers, things of that nature, because that’s for them, for both sides to figure out,” James continued. “The last thing you need is a distraction when you try to make a championship run. And we have that right now. And it’s unfortunate for both sides that we’re going through it right now as a team.”
While Thompson’s ambivalent future — he can no longer sign a one-year qualifying offer to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, and the Cavs don’t want to lose him for nothing next summer — continues to act as a bizarre shroud over Cleveland’s autumn, James’ role in the talks just exacerbates the whole imbroglio.
“I’m not going to go to them and tell them what they should do,” James said. So then why is he talking about it at all? Any comment he makes about the dispute acts as a not-so-subtle nudge to get something done, which just intensifies the histrionics.
In terms of negotiations, “That’s their job,” James said of the Cavs. “They know to do it very well, and they’ve done that to this point. They’ve brought in and did what they had to do for us to be a contending team, and, so, obviously Tristan is a big part of that run we want to make. I believe that something will happen.”
James is right about that last part, at least. The Cavs committed to paying $230 million on the very first day of free agency and have re-signed LeBron, locked in Kevin Love on a max deal, re-signed Iman Shumpert, brought back Mo Williams and re-signed J.R. Smith (on a smaller deal than the one he opted out of to start the summer). That’s a flurry of activity, all — seemingly — at the behest of LeBron. It makes sense, too. When you have the best player in the world on your team, you do whatever it takes to put talent around him because as long as he’s in a Cavs uniform, they’re one of the favorites to raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
But Tristan — and his agent Rich Paul, who is also LeBron’s agent, and who was also at the wedding they both attended over the weekend — wants a max deal. So, unless Cleveland elects to pay a backup power forward who can’t shoot $94 million over five years, he’ll continue to hold out. The Cavs do have a five-year, $80 million offer on the table, but TT and Paul won’t budge.
James mentioned two teams, Portland and Philly, who might wanna pay Tristan, something we’ve written about before. But again, what the hell is LeBron doing even talking about this?
Any time he mentions how Thompson’s holdout is a distraction, it just becomes that much more of a distraction. Every time he says anything about to reporters, posts to social media about it, or generally butts his head in where it doesn’t belong, it just makes it a bigger story.
While James isn’t demanding GM David Griffin pay Tristan the max, and he hasn’t told his agent to just lock Tristan in at $80 million over five years, he’s a human spotlight on the whole ordeal. If he wants to stop distracting the Cavs, he should stop tweeting, Instagramming or talking about it until both sides reach an agreement.
(Via ESPN)
