Factory Of Sadness
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Tristan Thompson Contract Not Worth It For Cleveland Cavaliers

By Nick Dudukovich

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Apr 8, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks guard Tyler Ennis (11) knocks the ball away from Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson (13) during the second quarter at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Only In Cleveland returns for another week, as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Browns, and Indians had no problem leaving their fans a little bewildered, especially concerting Tristan Thompson’s contract situation. Here’s what’s you need to know about the Cleveland sports scene:

Only with the Cavaliers…could the holdout of a backup power forward dominate the the headlines just four months removed from an NBA Finals run.

Thompson forfeited a year of unrestricted free agency by bypassing on the Cavs $6.8 million qualifying offer. The Cavs have offered a five-year, $80 million contract, and it’s likely Thompson wants more…even if he’s not worth it.

And that’s just not my opinion. Jesse Blancarte, of Basketball Insiders, wrote that a reserve who averaged 8.5 points and 8.0 rebounds isn’t worth a maximum-level contract, or the three-year, $53 million offer Thompson was seeking:

"“[Blancarte] notes that Thompson ranked 116th in the league last season with a Real Plus-Minus Rating of 0.86 and sported a 15.6 Player Efficiency Rating (compared to 20 for Ed Davis, who signed just a three-year, $20MM deal with Portland).”"

2. Kevin Love will get his chance to be a bigger part of the offense thanks to injuries to Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert. Love will head into the exhibition season leaner, but he’s added more muscle, which should be able to help him down in the post.

It became noticeable last season how Love was constantly chased off the block by stronger defenders. If he wants to improve his all-around game, he’s going to need to be able to hold his ground. Watching to see whether Love can win battles down low will be one of the more intriguing storylines of the early season.

3. I wrote a little bit about this in the most recent FoS Talk piece…yet again, we are talking about LeBron James‘ need to reduce his minutes.

Talking about it is one thing, and actually doing something is another–and that’s all dependent on James. The four-time MVP needs to be a little less hard headed and realize he doesn’t need to be averaged 35 minutes per night in November.

James knows he can be stubborn regarding his minutes, and admitted as much to the media recently, via Cleveland.com. “I’m very hard headed, I am, because I love to play so much. But I think (with) what we have, I don’t need to be as hard headed. I think I’ll be very smart with how many minutes I play per game and what I’m doing on the floor.”

Bottom line? Don’t put this on Blatt. The minutes are all on LeBron.

Only with the Browns…could the franchise basically ignore wideouts in the two most talent-rich NFL Drafts in recent memory, to finally draft a guy (Vince Mayle) in the fourth round, only to cut him before the season.

And then, to add insult to injury, Browns GM gives one of his cronies from his Kansas City days, Dwayne Bowe, $9 million guaranteed dollars.

The next pass Bowe catches this season will be his first, as the signing is looking like a sign of desperation, while making Farmer appear totally inept in his philophsy on how to build an offense.

2. Josh McCown is still the starting quarterback, but I still can’t get over the offensive huddle flapping their arms in a tizzy when 70,000 paying customers at FirstEnergy Stadium started changing “Johnny” during McCown’s pathetic first half against the Raiders.

Which brings about the TMZ report. Some local media members appeared to be teed off with the report that three Browns spoke anonymously about wanting Manziel to start.

Everyone was so quick to discredit TMZ as an inaccurate gossip rag, when the reality is that the website has broken news before, and probably has a better accuracy rating than ESPN’s Chris Broussard, lately.

Only with the Indians…

Argue as much as you want, but this Indians team was in playoff contention until about a week ago. Were the odds of making it always long? Yes, but it doesn’t change the fact that postseason play was a possibility.

Yet on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, you’d have thought the Tribe was 25 games out.

Say what you want about the Tribe’s ownership and payroll problems, but for a town that is known for complaining about not having a winner, it’s disappointing to see a lack of enthusiasm for a team with postseason aspirations–especially when many fans of the 90s remember how exciting that ballpark can be when it’s jammed full of people.

Next: Cowboys Bypassed On Chance To Trade For Manziel

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