The wait is finally over. After months of back and forth negotiating, Tristan Thompson has finally agreed to extend his stay in Cleveland with a fully guaranteed five-year deal worth $82 million. The reports comes from Cavaliers beat writer Chris Haynes. The deal makes Thompson the sixth highest paid power forward in the league behind teammate Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap, and David Lee. Tristan Thompson is also reported to be returning to training camp tomorrow.
There were rumors in the middle of the summer that he wouldn’t take anything less than a five-year $96 million max contract, even rumors that he would sign the RFA qualifying offer and play out his one-year before signing with the Toronto Raptors next summer. But the Cavaliers stood their ground and only went up a little bit from their original offer of $80 million over five years. Ultimately this seemed to be the only reasonable conclusion considering Thompson shares the same agent as teammate LeBron James, and the deadline to sign his qualifying offer passed on October 1st.
As for on the court, this makes all the sense in the world. Thompson stepped up in a big way last year in the playoffs after Kevin Love’s injury. And over the last few seasons he’s grown into being one of the best offensive rebounders in the league and one of the league’s best energy guys. The only off-court questions this contract leaves is whether they Cavaliers will be able to re-sign Timofey Mozgov to a long term deal next summer as he’s also in the last year of his contract. On court, the question that the Cavs will face, will be how to maximize having both Love and Thompson in the lineup (and on the court) at the same time.
Main Photo Caption: Oct 14, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson (13) reacts against the Milwaukee Bucks at Quicken Loans Arena. Cleveland won 106-100. Photo by David Richard via USA TODAY Sports.
