Cleveland Cavaliers drama with one player is no where near being over. They have a young player in Tristan Thompson who has yet to sign a deal with the team and the season is fast approaching.
Thompson’s issues are very well documented and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has been the reporting force behind the Thompson news. He believes that Thompson could be holding out for months and that this issue will take a third party factor to have both sides agree to a deal.
Windhorst said the following to Zach Lowe of Grantland on his ‘Lowe Post’ podcast.
Windhorst says, “So I think it’s going to take a third party event to bridge the gap here. And I can’t predict what that’s gonna be. It’s either gonna take an injury elsewhere in the NBA or a some sort of action elsewhere in the NBA to get these guys to refocus. I actually believe it will probably go months, I think this will go well into the regular season. I qualify that by saying literally something could happen next week that could create a chain of events.”
Windhorst goes into comparisons of the Thompson holdout and that of Anderson Varejao in 2007 when Varejao also held out until the Charlotte Bobcats extended an offer to Varejao, forcing the Cavs to match their offer.
Windhorst also says that Klutch Sports, Thompson’s management team, had originally planned to have Thompson sign first before LeBron James.
Windhorst goes on to talk about a possibility and speaks on the way that Klutch Sports could be looking at the situation.
“The Philly 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers have maximum salary slots still there. There is still a market for Tristan Thompson. I know what your snap judgement’s gonna be here ‘well, neither of those guys are gonna sign Tristan Thompson because they already had a chance to sign him and they passed.’ Yes, the Blazers have all these power forwards and yes the Sixers look like they’re stocked there too. But I know this is how Tristan’s representation sees this. If there are still possibilities out there with open cap space where a team, let’s say, decides to try to make a run at Tristan and can use one of those two teams as a facilitator, that leverage play is still out there. That still exists out there and it gives them a reason also to holdout. So that’s why I say, I think it’s gonna take some sort of outside force to create these two sides to get back into business together because right now I can tell they’re just turned off and they’re not even talking.”
Windhorst is speaking of a sign and trade involving one of those above two teams. Team with the max cap room gets Thompson and then sends him off to the other team in exchange for some dead salary in a deal.
Windhorst said the following about LeBron James and Klutch Sports summer plans.
“It was my understanding at the outset that their plan, when I say ‘their’, I’m talking about Tristan’s representation, was to handle Tristan Thompson’s contract first and then do LeBron’s contract. But five days into free agency, they realized Tristan’s deal was going to go very long and they had a choice to make. LeBron could either exercise influence or not. And whether it was Rich Paul’s decision or LeBron’s decision, they elected not to do that. LeBron signed his contract. And people made some reactions this week because LeBron came out and said something very, very tepid on Instagram. ‘Get it done.’ And he’s since said “it’s a distraction.” (People have said) ‘LeBron weighing in.’
“I rolled my eyes. No, that’s not LeBron weighing in. If LeBron wanted to weigh in, he’d come up in front of the microphone and say ‘When I signed with the Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert told me that the luxury tax and salary was not going to be an issue and that’s why I’m here. So sign Tristan Thompson because you said that wasn’t going to be an issue.’
“This is an interesting test case to see how forceful LeBron may be at the bargaining table with the players union in two years.”
Windhorst is usually in the know with things that go on in Cleveland. The Cavs can’t be promised tomorrow when it comes to this Thompson deal and they really have no other choice considering that Cleveland won’t have Mozgov in prime shape, as Windhorst also points out, and Kevin Love who is returning from injury.
Thompson’s management is playing a chess game with the Cavs right now and considering that all eyes are on them, someone has to make a move soon. The NBA regular season starts in 20 more days and the clock is ticking.
