The identity of the best remaining free agent, restricted or unrestricted, is pretty clear. Tristan Thompson‘s value was on full display after Kevin Love went down with a shoulder injury in the playoffs. The 2011 No. 4 overall pick gave the Cavs size, muscle and skill that helped them topple the Bulls and a 60-win Hawks team on the way to the Finals. Thompson averaged a whopping 4.4 offensive rebounds per game in postseason play. Still, no one will mistake the ambidextrous Canadian for a true NBA superstar.
The Rich Paul client has spent the past month as a restricted free agent, much of it in a stalemate after he and the Cavs were reportedly close to a deal on July 1st. Thompson was apparently ready to settle for $80MM over five years, but he reportedly asked for $85MM after it seemed that fellow restricted free agent forward Draymond Green would get that much in his deal with the Warriors. Green wound up with $82MM instead. In any case, Cavs GM David Griffin expressed confidence two weeks ago that he and Thompson would reach a deal.
Not much progress appears to have taken place since. So, we ask: What do you think will happen with Thompson, and how much will he see on his next deal? The Cavs have leverage, since they can match any offer, and only the Sixers and Trail Blazers have the cap room necessary to tender a max offer sheet. Still, Thompson has the nuclear option of signing his qualifying offer of nearly $6.778MM to hit unrestricted free agency next summer, just when the salary cap is set to vault, giving teams loads of cash to burn. Thompson and LeBron James share Paul as an agent, and James wants Thompson to return to Cleveland, so the Cavs face pressure.
So, tell us what you think happens and how much Thompson will make next season. To comment, simply enter your name and email address, write what you want to say, and submit it; there’s no need to become a registered user. Just make sure you comply with our commenting policy.
Chuck, I think ‘the nuclear option’ would actually be the Cavs’ dream scenario, although they’d never say so publicly. If Tristan Thompson signs a five-year deal, it’ll start at approximately $15M next season. Since the Cavs are already over the luxury tax, that contract alone will cost the team more than double that, because it also vaults them from the 150% taxpayer rate all the way to the 325% or 375% rate.
Lets say the Cavs get JR Smith to come back for the veteran’s minimum, if at all, and Tristan in effect becomes the last guy they sign this offseason – the player who pushes them into the high tax rate. The difference between him making $6.778M and $15M is hugely valuable – maybe about $40M in 2015-2016 dollars to the Cavs.
The conspiracy theorist in me thinks this is exactly what will happen…with the (albeit illegal) promise between Dan Gilbert, TT, Rich Paul, and Lebron James that the Cavs will make TT a terrific five-year offer next offseason, once the cap goes up and Gilbert wouldn’t face such an extreme hit on the luxury tax.
Great point! There would be mutual benefit there, for sure. The question is whether there’s enough trust to go through with it, and perhaps Cleveland doesn’t see Thompson as quite valuable enough to pay an escalated max to him starting in 2016/17. A max deal for Thompson now wouldn’t look like a max deal by the end of it, but that wouldn’t be the case if he signed for the max next summer.
True. But what if the deal didn’t inflate much? Let’s say Thompson is asking for 5/$85M right now, and they were close but they didn’t come to terms. The Cavs, without putting it in writing, tell Rich Paul that they won’t pay him that much now – because they’d get killed in lux tax payments this season – but they promise to offer him 5/$95M next offseason.
Thompson makes up the money he left on the table this offseason over the long term, and the Cavs save tens of millions off their ’15-16 payroll.
I guess there’s the risk that the Cavs ‘lose’ him next offseason from a team that tops that offer, but if so, good riddance. I don’t even think the guy is a $15M/yr player, so if another team is willing to go to $20M/yr, I think the Cavs would have to be ok with letting him go.
Very interesting theory. It’d be against the rules for them to enter into any sort of agreement, written or otherwise, about a deal that would extend beyond a signed qualifying offer, but that doesn’t mean that such side deals don’t happen in common practice. And it would indeed be a win-win scenario; both sides would essentially get what they want. Thompson might argue that if he were to sign now for five years and $85MM, he might sign a new contract when that’s one up for more than what he’d make in the last year of a five-year deal that he’d sign next year. That would entail looking far into the future, when a lot is difficult to predict, however.
I don’t think most players would be willing to take that risk. But the Lebron/Rich Paul/Dan Gilbert connection is so intertwined, there’s just no way the Cavs’ upper management would go back on whatever they had verbally (privately) agreed upon this summer.
Very true. I have to say I was quite surprised that they didn’t get an extension done this past fall. Perhaps they had a scenario like this in the back of their minds all along?
But if TT suffers a serious injury, then what?
That’s the big risk, and a major reason why, aside from Greg Monroe (and maybe Ben Gordon several years ago), no one in position to demand a deal approaching the max has ever signed the qualifying offer.