The Cleveland Cavaliers have technically started training camp if you consider the advanced efforts of Lebron James of calling his teammates over in Miami as such. But officially, training camp does open next week, September 29.
Regardless, the fact remains that the Cleveland Cavaliers are bent on rebounding for the coming 2015-16 NBA season after falling short last season against the Golden State Warriors. But is the roster actually complete as we speak?
There is still one missing player in the mix in Tristan Thompson and from the looks of it, the 24-year-old Canadian basketball star is $14-million away from his preferred deal.
The Cavaliers are standing firm on their offer of giving Thompson an $80 million deal spread over five-years but Thompson and his agent Rich Paul are batting for the $94-million spread.
Again, Thompson is singling out his performance last season especially when players like Anderson Varejao and Kevin Love went down to injury. Thompson did average near a double-double though the matter of whether he should get (and deserve a max offer) is up for debate.
The issue is apparently the annual money Thompson will make. Should he bite the Cleveland deal, he would be earning just $16 million a year compared to his target salary which is roughly around $18.8 million.
As far as the Cavs are concerned, the team believes they are offering the fair-market contract to Thompson. In fact the offer plays pretty well among the deals that Draymond Green ($16.4 million) and Jonas Valanciunas ($16 million) got.
Thompson reasons out that by next Summer, 20 teams will have more than $20 million in salary cap space and he believes that he stands to get just that once he hits checks out the free agent market.
If no deal is struck, the belief is that Thompson is likely to bite a one-year qualifying offer ($6.9 million) and likely become an unrestricted free agent in 2016. And of course, Thompson’s agent has said that his boy will not likely return for the Cavs should this be the scenario.
With the whole Thompson contract still at an impasse, it remains to be seen what comes out of this. More to that, there is the fact that Thompson is pretty close with Lebron James though many believe that such may not impact the King’s tenure in Cleveland.
Should Thompson end up signing a qualifying offer, it should not be surprising to see him being eventually traded somewhere in the season. With Thompson practically lost, the Cavs could likely skim the league for other players who they can stick with for a longer tenure.
That could be the case unless both the Cavs and Thompson end up mending the issue verbally – something that could happen in the coming days.
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