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October 21, 2015Video: Tristan Thompson reacts to his new deal with the Cavs
October 21, 2015The long, national wait is over: The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to terms with free agent power forward Tristan Thompson. According to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, the Cavs inked the 24-year old to a five-year, $82 million deal that makes him sixth-highest paid power forward in the league.
#Cavs, Tristan Thompson agree to 5-year, $82 million deal, league sources tell @clevelanddotcom.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 21, 2015
Tristan Thompson deal makes him 6th highest paid PF behind Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap, David Lee.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 21, 2015
Thompson’s impasse has been one of the most discussed storylines of the Cavaliers’ offseason following the restricted free agent’s refusal to sign an extension or the qualifying offer prior to the deadline. Missing all of the preseason, Thompson averaged 8.5 points and 8.0 rebounds over 82 games with the Cavs a season ago.
It is expected that he comes off of the bench behind Love once again, immediately providing Cleveland with one of the deepest frontcourts in the NBA alongside centers Timofey Mozgov and Anderson Varejao.
Thompson took to Instagram shortly after the signing, and recorded a video a bit later on.
50 Comments
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I guess this works with the win now mentality. Get the team together before the year and move forward. Then worry about if this was a bad move after we get a championship in the city.
if we get a championship I’m pretty sure it would rate as a good move if we signed anyone short of Hitler.
I guess the compromise between $94mil and $80mil was $82mil. Well played, Dan.
That’s right, saggy. Dan left him a $2 million tip. That’s 2.5%. Better luck next time, TT.
not my money but Im shocked the cavs didnt get a better deal considering what Iv seen with my eyes and the stats suggesting hes worth maybe 40m 5 yrs (from 538)
so we can trade him for someone else making 16M?
Haven’t seen any details yet but it certainly looks like a win-now move. Glad we went lower than his demands by ten mill, but it’s still overpaying. Turns out that’s his value to the team right now, and for at least a few seasons, then we get to Andy territory at the back end, hopefully drunk on championship series TT brand champagne.
I hope these continue throughout the season. Or for the next 5 seasons.
Trade bait!!!
Always on the table maybe not this year but it would be ironic.
Look at that smile! I just hope we see Mr. Thompson come off the bench and play the way he did last year and especially in the playoffs. I don’t want to see a dollar regression, not one.
I see a lot of reaction like the Cavs somehow lost in this, and it confuses me. They thought, TT was worth 80 mill and they signed him for just barely over it. The only PF’s definitely better than TT who are making less are Ibaka (who re-upped 2 years ago and is in line to get paid soon), Anthony Davis (still on that first deal), and Duncan (old as sin).
It just so happens that the Cavs also have the 2nd highest paid PF, so people are like “WHOAMG!”
With this deal TT will be able to move from the abject squalor pictured above.
In all seriousness I don’t understand why fans get caught up in numbers. TT had to be in here considering Andy’s injury history and Mozgov’s knee. Let’s enjoy the one team in town with a shot to bring fans a championship.
That must be Rich Paul’s estate.
TT actually lives in a cardboard box under the Innerbelt Bridge.
“Wiggins for Love.” I love that phrase. If the Cavs win it all, that goes down in Cleveland history. Like Tinker to Evers to Chance in Chicago.
I know how to respond when someone asks, “What would you do for Love?”
I just read that next year when the mega lottery comes to the NBA players that in the next labor agreement there will most likely be another amnesty clause. If so I’d say Thompson is a likely candidate unless he can be traded. But with Thompson finally signing this sort of might make Varejao expendable. Although with his injury history I’m not sure what if anything you could get back. Of course the Cavs still have the trade exception left as well.
It’s all about the numbers most specifically career 8 & 8. Thompson hit the lottery. Right place, right time. He better enjoy it. He better perform as well otherwise the Cavs have options to get out from under his insane contract.
Agree with all. I also don’t understand the “they overpaid him” thing. Tristan is worth what the market will bear. People cringe at associating his stevedore skills, youth, intensity and sturdiness with $80m. The actual issue is: what would other teams might have paid him over the next 5 years, whether the Cavs could have replaced that and whether they would have needed to. In 2 years, once the new cap and salary floors are set, this contract may look very reasonable. And Kyrie may be very disgruntled over his own rush to signature.
IMO it would have been silly for Griffin to risk holding firm at $45m or some other random set figure. Their window is now, and Tristan has shown the sort of playoff-specific intensity, banging and extra possessions necessary to win a ring. Yes, they may look foolish if, like Hot Rod Williams, his level of intensity diminishes now that his contract drive is over – remember, this same guy sometimes floated lackadaisically for weeks as recently as 2013-2014. But getting him in now and ending all distraction, having the flexibility to pace and heal other guys and have the team do a slow gel feels just right. One ring is more important than the supposed “win” or “lose” of one player’s contract.
538’s model for that equation was horrendous.
And by “very reasonable” you mean “completely average”
he wasn’t being pushed by LeBron in 13-14, nor was he being pulled by the lure of The Finals.
Also, it made complete sense for the Cavs to overspend because, due to salary cap restrictions, they would have been unable to replace him with any player making more than about the minimum. So, as long as Gilbert was going to spend money, it was just a question of how much – because we know he is comfortable spending it.
It’s not common that a guy dogs it for weeks because LeBron’s not pushing him or he has no shot at the Finals. Really, that’s an insult to all players who may have off nights or hangovers but who generally try. The ferocious Tristan we saw in the playoffs was much closer in effort to rookie Tristan. He played hard in some games between 2012-2014, but we can’t forget periods – not just a random game – where he just stood there disinterested. Maybe LeBron’s presence and the surrounding vibe will prevent that, but it’s good to be aware of a player’s previous behavior when you’re laying this level of guaranteed cash on him. Again, I’m for the signing. But not conferring sainthood.
538 is about the most disappointing thing to come about in the past several years. Such high hopes, so little returns.
Enjoy a sports team? It’s been so long, I think people forgot how.
Eh. They have some interesting stuff, but their basketball rater is pretty crappy as far as I can tell.
I think this may be backwards. At the end of this deal, he’s going to be in his prime and the deal will be absolutely reasonable because the cap will have jumped by 50% or more. At the beginning it’s going to be harder to justify, but I think this was a good choice for the Cavs and they may well get value on the back end.
I almost feel the deal was made with this in mind. Young active durable extraneous PF for a prices part that a team needs to shed.
Really? I think it’s quite common for players on losing teams to not play with full energy and effort all the time because they basically know that their efforts are futile. TT has played hard most of the time that I’ve seen him, he’s also played EVERY game…maybe some of the times he was “dogging it” he was a bit injured and playing through it? Maybe he was just beaten down by a losing culture. LBJ talked soooo much about changing the culture when he got here. And I think that’s exactly what he was talking about. Let’s remember that he’s 24. He’s shown far more intrinsic motivation and drive to play well and not dog it on a crappy team when he’s playing for basically nothing than a lot of other 24 year olds.
As many people have pointed out next year salaries will increase dramatically which will make this new deal for Thompson look normal. This also means since the deal will be normal it shouldn’t be all that difficult to trade should the Cavs decide to do so. Of course this is also based on Thompson being able to maintain a career 8 and 8 which for me shouldn’t be all that hard. I’m expecting better.
I accept your apology.
When Timo takes some ridiculous deal elsewhere that we can’t/won’t match and we see Kuhn play, Tristan becomes significantly less moveable as a piece.
Not that he’s untouchable or you wouldn’t be able to deal the contract, just that you control him for many years on a deal that will be average soon and he shares Bron’s agent….the return will need to be significant.
Locking up another young core piece of the team for 5 years = win now?
Huh.
You should have been one of those congressman in the hearings today because you hear things that were never said. Point is you wanted to give him $90M simply because the Cavs could the fact he signed for less points more to what I said then you. Have a nice day!
It’s Kaun not Kuhn and he’s not a starting center sorry.
Wanna bet Thompson isn’t a Cavalier for 5 years?
They have interesting questions, but every single time I look at the methodologies they use, I am left shaking my head. It could be such a fun site. Ah well.
Maybe you missed the part where Ben called Kaun, Kuhn and I played off that.
You could be my running mate the way you spin things.
My stance had always been, get it done. I could have cared less if it was $80 or $90.
You cried for weeks that even $80 was overpaying Tristan and it didn’t matter what the cap would look like in two years.
….but now you jump in with a “in two years this deal will be normal”….just seems like I saw that comment made by someone else here.
“Tristan should be a Cavalier for life”
— Lebron James.
Sooooooo…. Yeah I’ll take that wager.
If that’s your idea of evidence Mr. Dowd then it sounds like we have a bet. I can’t wait to see you dressed in Boston gear from head to toe wearing the sign, “$hamrock is my daddy!”
I was responding to you not Ben but I’m sure he appreciates being thrown under the bus.
Thanks for the offer but I’m not a bottom.
Thompson isn’t worth $80M I thought we already established that? He’s certainly not worth $82.5M but as you pointed out over and over Dan Gilbert is paying him not us. As for the crying, sure.
Please go back and reread the entire comment I made which included the part you chose to parse. Clearly I was speaking about you and your constant refrain of “next year the salaries will all increase so if Thompson gets paid an absurd amount now in a year it won’t look as bad” comments. This still makes no sense which is exactly why I chose to mention it, again. I’m glad you could find it.
Well said sir. I don’t care as much about who starts as I do about who is on the floor at the end of games, and David Blatt loves to use TT as the closer at center. The extra possessions that he gives down the stretch keep the Cavs in basically every game they play.
Yes, good call. This is one of those contracts that sounds big when it was signed and will end up looking completely normal by the end.
I certainly never established that Tristan wasn’t worth 5/$80.
538 sure tried to establish that and failed due to the lackluster calculation shoddily thrown together.
Ohhhhh yeah… Boston, the teams you do actually have vested interest in.
Forgot all about them.
No you thought he was worth whatever he wanted which is how you and I began this dance.
I don’t know 538 but I will not change my opinion that Thompson wasn’t worth $80M. That being said I’m glad it’s over and we can get on to the season. I will be watching to see what Thompson does to help his team win. I hope you do as well.
I root for a majority of them absolutely although I must say between the Celtics and now the Bruins things aren’t as bright as in the past. Thank goodness for the Pats. Red Sox will be back next year just watch.
I ido have to say for as much disdain as I had for the Patriots in the early 2000’s, I love that team now.
I whole heartily believe they are a low down scumbag bunch of cheaters.. but I don’t care. The NFL is as corrupt as they come so honestly “let he without sin” kinda thing, ya know.
I love Bill’s pissed off Uncle mentality and Tom’s goofy cutthroat play.