Cleveland Cavaliers Cannot Give In To Tristan Thompson

In the NBA, you’ve got players who deserve money and respect based on their history and track record of success. Then, you’ve got players who have put together a resume based on potential and a relatively small history of success, who believe they should receive similar money and respect.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have one of each — with LeBron James earning and deserving every cent of his contract — and Tristan Thompson, reaching for the stars through his agent, Rich Paul.

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Back in August, Paul drew a line in the sand — if the Cavs make Thompson play for the $6.8 million qualifying offer, he’s walking as an unrestricted free agent in the Summer of 2016.

LeBron has voiced his opinion as well, saying that Thompson’s re-signing should be the Cavs “No. 1 objective.”

This is where Thompson’s attitude towards the situation gets murky and is a red flag for the Cavaliers organization. According to Northeast Ohio Media Group, Thompson isn’t going to join his teammates in a voluntary training camp in Miami.

Inconspicuous by his absence is Thompson, the 6-foot-9 24-year-old out of the University of Texas.

There’s one simple question — you can feud with the organization all you want, but why take it out on your teammates? Why not continue to work hard towards the ultimate goal — bringing a championship to Cleveland — instead of sulk away from your teammates?

No matter what happens in this contract drama, Thompson is going to suit up for the Cavs this season. If he is forced to take the qualifying offer, he’ll have the world in his hands. The better he plays, the more he’ll earn.

WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE TABLE

During the 2014-15 playoff run, Thompson proved himself to be critical to the Cavaliers interior play. In his first playoff appearance, he averaged 9.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks — leading all players with 88 offensive rebounds.

Once he entered the starting lineup (Eastern Conference Semis Game 2 vs. Chicago), he averaged 10.6 points, 12.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks. He averaged 13 rebounds (5.3 offensive) per game in the NBA Finals.

Defensively, he was a solid producer. During the regular season, he allowed opponents to 1.0 percent better than their season average inside overall (1.3 percent worse from 3). In the playoffs, that number improved dramatically to 4.6 percent worse than the season average (and a whopping 10.3 percent from the 3-point line).

Paul and his client will point to that and preach “potential,” while the Cavs brass come back with “sample size.” The fact is, neither are correct. Thompson didn’t do that much more this season than he had the previous two and the fact that Thompson started 164 games the previous two seasons trashes that sample size argument. Take a look at Thompson’s per-36 minute stats:

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/14/2015.

WHAT ABOUT LOVE

A big reason Kevin Love was brought to Cleveland in the first place was that Thompson was a young, talented forward that wasn’t enough of a difference maker. Love is a better defensive rebounder, a remarkably better offensive player and a considerably worse defender.

Let’s not forget Love’s ability to spread the floor, making Kyrie Irving and LeBron’s path to the bucket much easier:

If Thompson were an all-world defender with great versatility (thinking Draymond Green), and would be the unquestioned starter, then I could see where Thompson’s camp would feel they need a big deal right now. Neither of those things are true.

There’s a redundancy at the power forward and on the surface, it would appear neither Thompson nor Love is a good fit at the center position. The thing is — that’s not necessarily true, either.

In the regular season (minimum 42 minutes played together), the three most successful lineup combinations (in terms of net points per 100 possessions) had Love and Thompson on the court at the same time. Due to Love’s separated shoulder in Game 4 of the Cavs’ first-round series against the Boston Celtics, Love and Thompson didn’t share the court much in the playoffs.

WHAT ABOUT MOZGOV

Let’s not forget what Timofey Mozgov brings to the table. He’s a big, tough center who can both hold his own on the defensive end and create points on the offensive side. Going back to those lineup combinations, he was part of each of the top four 5-man playoff combinations this last season. During the regular season, he and LeBron James represented the best two-man combo, at plus-16.8 points per-100 possessions.

The tricky part here is that Mozgov, like Thompson, is set to hit the free agent market in the Summer of 2016. Unless Dan Gilbert decides to go Russian Billionaire on us and jump headlong into the deepest reaches of luxury tax purgatory, he can’t sign Thompson and Mozgov.

So, who is more valuable? Their numbers are awfully similar, though many would argue that the age gap should turn the Cavs attention towards Thompson. Mozgov is the better defender (though maybe not as versatile), Thompson gets an edge on offense. It’s all about team makeup, which brings us to the next point.

WHAT DOES LEBRON WANT

When your superstar player comes out in support of signing a player, generally you’re best served to do so. James wants Thompson locked up, but if we’re going to play the friends/loyalty card, we need to look at the other side.

Would Thompson really walk in free agency out of spite if the Cavs don’t extend the offer he’s looking for? Is he really going to leave the best player in the game to go play for…Toronto?

The team has to tread lightly here, but they also don’t have to give in and sign the franchise’s financials away this season. Let’s play “what if” for a minute.

What if the Cavs make Tristan sign the qualifying offer and the Cavs win the NBA Championship? Will that make him more or less apt to leave? Isn’t the championship the point, here? By locking Tristan up, the Cavs would be hamstringing themselves even further for a guy who likely won’t play 30 minutes a night. Can’t the front office sit down with LeBron and explain it in those terms?

At the end of the day, the Cavs have to be transparent. James is no Markieff Morris, but he’s shown that he’ll leave home if the situation calls for it. I just can’t see Tristan Thompson as being that reason.

Next: 25 Best Players to Play for the Cleveland Cavaliers

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