The Cleveland Cavaliers opened up training camp without Tristan Thompson signed to a contract and with the qualifying offer deadline coming, a long term deal looks unlikely. LeBron James said to the media that he was not worried about the negotiations with Thompson and that he was done talking about it now that camp has started.
Thompson and the Cavs have been working on a deal this offseason and the sides have not been close on an agreement over the past month. According to the Akron Beacon-Journal, Thompson was not present for media day and missed the first practice for the Cavaliers in camp. Reports leading into camp had Thompson looking for a max contract offer and later ESPN reported that Thompson was willing to sign a shorter term deal at three years and around $50 million.
The Cavaliers have not yet been willing to meet the max contract offer and Cleveland.com reports that the team has not made an offer in the three year range yet and may not be willing to meet that number either. The Cavs just gave Kevin Love a max deal and with Thompson playing the same position, the team may not want to put so much money in two power forwards. The qualifying offer deadline is coming and that deal would give Thompson a one-year contract and would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Thompson stepped up in the playoffs last season with Kevin Love injured and during the regular season he averaged 8.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. According to Ric Bucher at Bleacher Report, Thompson's agent Rich Paul thinks that the forward can get a max deal as a free agent and that is why they have been holding off on signing the qualifying offer or making another deal. The Cavs are interested in keeping Thompson, but they just spent a ton of money and may not want to overpay for the forward.
The Cavaliers return after winning the east last season and they have a deeper team now with players like Mo Williams, Richard Jefferson and Sasha Kaun joining up. The team brought back players like James, Iman Shumpert, Love, Matthew Dellavedova and James Jones as well as JR Smith on contracts and the only key player missing is Thompson. The two sides could work out a deal before the QO deadline comes, but based on recent reports, a long term agreement is looking unlikely.
The team was already coming into camp shorthanded with Kyrie Irving dealing with an injury and Thompson in a contract dispute and now they are down another key player. The team announced this week that Iman Shumpert suffered a wrist injury and now could miss up to four months while recovering from surgery. According to ESPN, Shumpert is undergoing surgery on Wednesday and the timetable for his return could be sometime in January. Shumpert re-signed in the offseason after being acquired in a trade with the Knicks.
