The Time Klutch Lost at Chicken

Last week we Cavs fans waited with baited breath to see what Tristan Thompson would do. We all thought he would either reach an agreement with the Cavaliers, or take a one year $6.8 million qualifying offer and elect to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. I even reported that the Cavs could extend his qualifying offer out till March (and incorrectly reported that they’d done it with Andy before). But very few of us expected Tristan Thompson and Rich Paul to do what they did: absolutely nothing. By doing nothing, they officially made Tristan Thompson a holdout, and removed the one bit of leverage Tristan had: the threat to take the qualifying offer and to leave town next summer. I guess they didn’t want to make nine million less this year than what the Cavs were offering. Maybe Rich Paul realized that it’s not that smart to play chicken against a semi when you’re driving a weinermobile.

It’s hard to see the end game for Thompson and Paul here. The Cavaliers own Tristan’s rights through next summer. Unless someone else signs Tristan Thompson to an offer sheet, the Cavs can simply wait for TT to sign. The only teams with cap room to sign Tristan Thompson to an offer sheet are Philadelphia and Portland. Neither seem especially incentivized to sign undersized bench center. Philly holds on to their cap room so they can absorb bad contracts and waiver pickups, and add to the ever expanding list of teambuilding “assets.” Portland has Ed Davis who does most of what Tristan Does at 40% of TT’s asking price. Additionally, the Cavs don’t have to sign any contract they don’t want to. They could simply say, “nah” till next summer and then we’d go through this process again.

The whole game is causing a palpable level of angst and vitriol among Cavs fans. The overwhelming consensus seems to be, “no other team in the league would pay TT $80 million over five years, and he wants more than that?!!” Even LeBron James weighed in on Instagram this weekend in his unique passive aggressive way.

Get it done!!!! Straight up. #MissMyBrother @realtristan13

A photo posted by LeBron James (@kingjames) on Oct 3, 2015 at 9:03pm PDT

James further clarified after practice on Sunday that “he wasn’t trying to apply pressure to the front office to accept Thompson’s demands.” according to the NE Ohio Media Group’s Joe Vardon.

That is not what I’m saying, Like I said, I believe both sides will get something done. Throughout the negotiation process, it’s always both sides. It’s not just one sided…

[It’s] kind of like the elephant in the room all over, for everybody…

The last thing you need is a distraction when you try to make a championship run, and we have that right now.

Unfortunately for Klutch Sports The Cavs are under no obligation to end this quickly, other than for the sake of team unity. They spent all of Friday removing Tristan’s name and visage from the Q, and his gear from the team shop (which I assume they have to do since he’s not under contract). Cleveland has all the leverage at this point, and the depth at the big spots to wait Tristan Thompson out, assuming Kevin Love is ready to start the season. And that’s what stinks more than anything about this situation. Tristan Thompson has put himself in a position where he has to root for his team and his teammates to fail if he wants to improve his bargaining position.

This isn’t a Festus Ezeli situation. If you recall, Ezeli was allegedly accused of rooting against his teammates (report by Grantland’s Zach Lowe) by coach and master manipulator Mark Jackson.

When Ezeli was injured last season, Jackson and his staff told the healthy players that Ezeli was cheering against them — so that he would look good, according to several team sources. Players confronted Ezeli in a meeting, and he wept at the accusation — which he denied.

No, Tristan has put himself in a position where he is looking to enrich himself through his teammate’s struggles. By all accounts, Andy is looking spry, Sausha Kaun has shown good defense and good hands, Mozgov should be ready, and Kevin Love is trim and his shoulder is feeling good. The Wine and Gold scrimmage tonight and this week’s pre-season games should give us a good look at how the Cavs are fixed without Tristan Thompson. Unfortunately, Thompson needs them to be bad, and that’s not good.

We’ve heard multiple reports of how an “average player holding is the Cavaliers hostage.”And it’s hard to see that behavior as anything other than greed.

The TT camp isn't saying he's worth what they're asking, they're saying CLE can't win a championship without him, and have to pay for that.

— a! (@JohnKrolik) October 2, 2015

Further, Thompson has forced us to look at his warts instead of the things he does well (character, durability, defensive utility, and rebounding), forcing some of us to concede, “yeah, he really is average.”

https://twitter.com/CoryHughey/status/650531592373411840

Some age-23 close comps for Tristan Thompson: Sam Dalembert, Josh Boone and Dale Davis. http://t.co/sq7D5uQ6nK pic.twitter.com/YCd8VeHh3F

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) October 2, 2015

And the 4 year $44 million extension that John Henson signed isn’t looking good for Thompson either. Henson and Thompson are very comparable except for the fact that Henson is a much better shotblocker and more opportunistic scorer. Henson signed for about 60% per year of what TT wants.

But I get it. Thompson looked around this summer and saw all these mediocre players getting paid, and he feels he’s at least as good as Reggie Jackson and Enes Kanter. And I get the Cavs position too. They were reportedly very close to signing a five year $80 million dollar deal and Thompson backed out, according to Steve Kyler of BasketballInsiders.com. The gap between the original number and the $94 million max Rich Paul was demanding later in the summer comes down to pride and money for Thompson, Rich Paul, and the Cavaliers.

Thompson doesn’t want to admit he’s not as good as Draymond Green. (He’s not). Rich Paul doesn’t want to admit he screwed up (badly). And the Cavs don’t want to pay a guy more than they feel they should have to and were minutes from agreeing to (and paying the associated luxury tax). There might be a middle ground, but with his adversarial approach, Rich Paul has probably missed the opportunity to turn into that field.

The Cavs called the bluff that Thompson would sign the QO, and Paul had to veer the weinermobile into a ditch to avoid getting run down by big-riggin’ David Griffin. Every day now, TT risks falling down his stairs, getting in a car accident, contracting an illness, or hurting himself training, then, God forbid, he’d be shut out of an $80 million dollar deal that is only on the table through the goodness of David Griffin’s and Dan Gilbert’s hearts. Thompson’s only recourse for more more money now is to sit on his bum, do nothing, and root against his own squad. He’s starting to look like a real weiner.