Cleveland’s October Sports Calendar
October 1, 2015Browns ABC’s: About Browns Controversies, Week 3
October 2, 2015The impasse continues. The October 1, 11:59 p.m. deadline for Tristan Thompson to sign a one-year qualifying offer with the Cleveland Cavaliers has passed.
Tristan Thompson failed to pick up the Cavs' $6.8 million qualifying offer by the 11:59 p.m. ET deadline per league source.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 2, 2015
He is still a restricted free agent. The Cavs can still offer him a contract, other teams can still offer him a contract, and the Cavs can still match any offer that he receives. The only real change is that the one-year, $6.8 million qualifying offer — after which Thompson would have been an unrestricted free agent — is no longer on the table.1
This means that the negotiation is not over. For all we know, may just be beginning. Or they might sign a deal Friday morning. Nobody really knows anything except Thompson’s agent Rich Paul and Cavs GM David Griffin.
The Cavs and Thompson had reportedly agreed on a five-year, $80 million deal on July 1; no dice. They reportedly agreed on a three-year, $53 million deal; incorrect. Word was that if Thompson took the qualifying offer, he would sign elsewhere — possibly Toronto — when he became an unrestricted free agent. Now that’s off the table too.
Thompson has missed the first three days of training camp already. If he and the Cavs don’t strike a deal soon, well, we’ll have a holdout on our hands, folks.2 The season tips off on October 27. Were Thompson to sit out the entire season, he would remain a restricted free agent.
Holdouts are fairly rare in the NBA, and Thompson’s would be the first for the Cavs since Anderson Varejao in 2007. Varejao didn’t sign with the Cavs until December 4. He signed a three-year, $17 million offer sheet with the Charlotte then-Bobcats (now Hornets), which the Cavs matched.3
In 82 games last year (15 starts), Thompson averaged 8.5 points and 8.0 rebounds (3.3 offensive) in 26.8 minutes per game. He shot 54.7 percent from the field, by far a career best. He finished fifth in the league in total offensive rebounds, fourth in offensive rebound percentage, and top 20 in total rebounds.
He played in all 20 Cavs playoff games, starting 15 after Kevin Love went down with a shoulder injury. He averaged 9.6 points and 10.8 rebounds (4.4 offensive) in 36.4 minutes, shooting nearly 56 percent.
The No. 4 overall pick in the 2011 draft, Thompson has played all 82 games and finished among the top five offensive rebounders in each of the past three seasons. He was the only Cavalier to play in every game last season.
If things go smoothly, he’ll play in every game this year, too. If not, the Cavs could be missing another body on opening night.
This story has been corrected. It previously stated that Thompson would remain an unrestricted free agent were he to sit out the entire season. WFNY regrets the error.
- The Cavs could have extended the deadline, but elected not to as a means of limiting Thompson’s leverage; the loss of the QO all but eliminates any chance that Thompson will be unrestricted after next season, and the Cavs can offer him more than any other team by way of his Bird rights. [↩]
- We may technically already have one? Depends on your definition, I suppose. [↩]
- Sasha Pavlovic held out in 2007 as well, signing on October 30. [↩]
21 Comments
At this point, the Cavs hold all the leverage. He can sign an offer sheet, but any offer sheet has to be for at least three years (the third year can be a player option, so effectively two guaranteed years). The Cavs can match any offer sheet and the only teams that can pay the kind of money Tristan and Rich Paul want are the Sixers and the Blazers. The caveat for them is that they could screw themselves if the Cavs DON’T match because it would limit their cap space going forward. This isn’t like the Anderson Varejao favor when he held out. Those teams might be willing to offer a three year deal, but I doubt they do max money.
Barring an offer sheet or a sign-and-trade, Tristan is now under the control of the Cavs next summer as well. He could sit out the entire season and get hit with another QO next year, becoming restricted once more.
The Cavs could also hold off until after the season starts, creating a situation where his salary is pro-rated, saving lots of money on the luxury tax. They could technically add him around March 1 so he’d be playoff eligible.
GOOGLE CAREERS::As Joan replied I am stunned that a mom can make $28273 in four weeks on the internet ……..Simple online work for all. Make $5000 to $9000 every week online.4-5hour day by day work……….read the full info here
/fb.
➤➤➤ http://GoogleChampionTopPayingOnlineTrendingCareer/Earn/hourly/$97….✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥✥
Seems to me that TT wants to be paid based on this last playoff performance versus betting on himself this year.
What about an offer with unusual terms similar to the Lin deal?
It seems to me that Tristan/Paul have blinked twice during these negotiations. First, they floated the 3-year deal story. Now, they have backed off of their “sign the qualifying offer and play for the Raptors” story. It seems more and more like Tristan will be signing that 80 mil contract.
http://d236bkdxj385sg.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/tumblr_nhubowngGw1r6qguso5_250.gif
Drinking my tears this morning, just FYI. 😉
Thought for sure they’d have it wrapped up at 5/85 by last week.
There a limits to how an offer sheet can be structured. There can be no poison pill that can’t affect all teams equally.
I think the Cavs might jump on a backloaded deal like Lin’s was. That would push salary to the back end when the salary cap will be much, much higher. But there are limits to how much you can tinker there.
Only the Blazers have max money space, looking at it now. The Sixers have just over $11M in space – and the Cavs would jump all over $11M in first year salary.
Another thing to remember about an offer sheet is that it is confined to the rules of signing with another team. Since the Cavs have Tristan’s Bird Rights, they can give him a 7.5% raise based on his first year of salary.
So let’s say that Philly offered him $11M in the first year. They would be confined to a 4.5% raise, so that is all that would be in the offer sheet. It would also be limited to four years max. A four year offer sheet starting at $11M would look like:
1: $11M
2: $11.495M
3: $11.99M
4: $12.485M
TOTAL: $46.97M
The Cavs would sign that in a heartbeat. If they were to make an offer like that, they could give an extra year guaranteed and a 7.5% raise. So even over four years:
1: $11M
2: $11.825M
3: $12.65M
4: $13.475M
TOTAL: $48.95M
So the Cavs can offer $2M more over the same span just by using the higher raise. It’s a larger difference if the first year salary is higher. And they also could throw in a guaranteed year of $14.3M or even a player option of that salary as a safety valve in case Tristan runs into a diminished skills period or gets injured.
If the Cavs are offering anywhere near $14M to start the first year (it’s probably just slightly under that), even if someone else made an offer, the raised would be limited and the value would be closer due to the Cavs’ ability to offer a larger raise.
Or maybe the Cavs are sticking with what they offered all along. Thompson is the one screwing this all up it’s just a shame he can’t understand it. But this shouldn’t come as any surprise I mean we are talking about a guy who was a career 8 & 8 who never played like a true PF until this past season especially in the playoffs. Frankly he’s lucky the Cavs want to pay him $16M a year, period.
http://www.sbnation.com/2015/10/2/9438945/tristan-thompson-contract-cavaliers-max-silly
Or it could be pure hubris on Rich Paul’s part.
The end result is the same and that is his client looks like a dope. Granted he’ll still be overpaid but a dope nonetheless. The question I have will be if and when he returns how does he play. He better not regress after this shamockery. The one unmentioned positive for the Cavs is he could be a trade chip. I kind of like that idea. After this summer of nonsense resign him then trade him during the season. Trade him to someone like Sacramento or Charlotte so he is reminded of what it’s like to not play in the playoffs.
Very well could be, I’m not in the room so I don’t know.
There’s room to get this done and it’s pretty important for the Cavs to do so.
We’ve been through this a million times and my stance is still that if you lose Tristan you can’t replace him with a $3million dollar MLE type-player which will be your only recourse.
Cavs are glad you aren’t in the room because you’d have given him $100M.
It’s more important for Thompson because his next team won’t give him nearly as much as the Cavs that’s the bottom line.
I’m not convinced the Cavs haven’t already replace him with the number of big men they have on the roster. The only question is health. Will Varejao last a season? Can Love stay healthy? Will Mozgov’s knee be ok all year? Thompson’s best selling point is his health.
maybe. He received so much acclaim last year for getting Bledsoe his money after winning a game of chicken but this doesn’t feel the same at all. The Cavs certainly want him badly but there’s no sense of desperation. Paul may have unwittingly put himself in a box with his “QO = Gone in ’16” play. Tristan may not want to leave, but may also not want to back track on the agent’s threat, and now he stands to start losing paychecks. And none of these NBA guys – not even relatively mature youngsters like Tristan – have the funds to hold out indefinitely.
Uhh… trade chip he is not. Since he’s a free agent you can’t trade him.
And if he does sign, why would you trade him?
Sure, why not? If we’re gonna hand out dumb $10 million dollar contracts to Varejao why not just keep rolling them out?
I’d rather not have to answer any of those health questions and just find a deal that works for Tristan/Cavs.
Because right now you are backing up your Forward/Center position with Andy, Kaun and James Jones..none of which can guard a high PnR.
Tristan is legit one of the five big men in the league that can switch out on a PG up high and you not cringe.
After they resign him he is most assuredly a trade chip same as Varejao.
Tristan is legit one of the five big men in the league that can switch out on a PG up high and you not cringe.
Rich Paul couldn’t agree more!
Something tells me the Cavs are feeling pretty confident .
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2015/10/cavs_coach_david_blatt_was_sle.html#incart_river
my last pay check was $7559 working 8 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 16k for months now and she works about 18 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do…
http://www.goooooooooglenavjobs8homebasedjobs.blogspot.com/
91