The outlook surrounding Tristan Thompson is not positive. The deadline passed for the power forward and the Cleveland Cavaliers to agree on a one-year, $6.8 million qualifying offer for the restricted free agent meaning Thompson is officially in hold out mode. As the Cavaliers continue on with training camp, the power forward is not there and will not show up until given a new contract. LeBron James finally spoke up about the situation, saying it is a distraction to the entire team.
James broke his silence over the contract issues with Thompson, posting a photo on social media of the two with the caption, "Get it done!!!!" He then told the media after a practice session on Sunday that he wants the contract to get done simply because it is the elephant in the room for the team and proving to be a distraction.
"It's kind of like the elephant in the room all over, for everybody," James said, via ESPN.com. "Hopefully some resolve can happen sooner than later. You know, obviously, we continue to say, I continue to say how his value to us is extreme, as we saw last year in the postseason, throughout the season. I'm not here to talk about numbers, things of that nature, because that's for them, for both sides to figure out. The last thing you need is a distraction when you try to make a championship run. And we have that right now."
Teams can certainly make a run at Thompson if they want. The Cavaliers reserve the right to match any deal placed on the power forward, but teams could easily try and outbid Cleveland for a deal. According to agent Rich Paul via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toronto Raptors will be the team that takes Thompson away from Cleveland either this year or next. Right now, the Raptors just added Anthony Bennett and while Thompson would be an upgrade over the remainder of the power forward options, the Raptors are not spending any more money.
The Cavaliers are not backing down from a five-year, $80 million contract. Chris Broussard of ESPN originally reported that Thompson was willing to take three years and $53 million over his original five-year, $94 million demand, but Cleveland agreed to no such thing. With Iman Shumpert out for months following wrist surgery, having Thompson coming off the bench is important for the Cavaliers. Now the pressure will be on Kevin Love, Anderson Varejao and Timofey Mozgov to make up in size.
James denies that he is influencing contract talks. The star told the media that he has no plans on telling the front office what they should do regarding negotiations. He remains confident that some kind of contract will agreed upon soon, but a timetable for that is unknown.
"I'm not going to go to them and tell them what they should do," James said, via ESPN.com. "That's their job, they know to do it very well, and they've done that to this point. They've brought in and did what they had to do for us to be a contending team, and, so, obviously Tristan is a big part of that run we want to make. I believe that something will happen."