Factory Of Sadness
FanSided

Tristan Thompson’s Potential Max Deal Is A Fantasy

By Joe Russo

facebooktwitterreddit

The Cleveland Cavaliers are close to bringing back all of their core players. To get that done, the question with the last piece of the puzzle is now for how long and how much will it cost?

Now that J.R. Smith is signed to a new deal, there’s only one piece of outstanding business for the Cavaliers: Tristan Thompson

Negotiations with the power forward has been at a standstill ever since Thompson walked away from what was reported as a verbal agreement on a five year, $80 million deal. For an undersized and under-skilled big man, that was a generous offer even at the time. Thompson has been seeking $94 million dollars as a max player.

His camp is probably looking at the deal Enes Kanter signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder as proof that Thompson deserves similar money. While Kanter may have been an overpay at $70 million over four years (an average of $17.5 million per season), Kanter does provide far more actual value than Thompson would at a similar cost.

Kanter is not as good of a defender, but Thompson is in fact overrated in that area of his game as he neither blocks shots nor does he deter shots at the basket. Kanter is also a larger player and can actually score the ball. After being traded to OKC, Kanter exploded into a 20 point per game scorer and a double-double machine.

We can also look closer at players that fill a similar role: high energy rebounders at power forward, who sees spot duty at center. The players below are a better representation of the type of player and the type of cost that Thompson should be compared to.

More from Cleveland Cavaliers

– Amir Johnson just signed with the Boston Celtics at $12 million per season, but boast a 15.1 Value Over Replacement Player compared to Thompson’s paltry 0.9.

– For Ed Davis, who played last year at the veteran’s minimum, signed a 3 year, $20 million deal with the Portland Trail Blazers. He stands at a 5.7 VORP, while shooting 60 points better from the floor and has double the blocks than that of Thompson.

– Nick Collison checks in at 112. He has a VORP with a Defensive Win Shares score of 17.2. That is more than double Thompson’s score. Collison is slated to make $3.75 million this year.

– What about Cleveland’s own Anderson Varejao? Andy wins on VORP (13.3) and Defensive Win Shares (23.3) by a wide margin– all at a cost of $10 million per season.

We can all applaud Thompson’s efforts on the floor and the hustle he brings. However, we saw with Matthew Dellavedova that hustle and effort do not necessarily translate into skill. Thompson overplayed his hand in trying to earn far more money than he is worth on the floor because of his relationships with LeBron James and Rich Paul. Not only will this max deal not get done, but the qualifying offer of a little less than $7 million might be the best that a guy like Thompson can do on the open market.

After all, there’s a reason Thompson was only seeing between 23-25 minutes per night in the last two months of the season when the Cavs went on a tear. A max player? Absolutely not, and now, Thompson is paying the price for talking himself into believing that he is one.

Next: 3 Options For The Cleveland Cavaliers Trade Exceptions

More from Factory of Sadness

Home/Cleveland Cavaliers