The off season is almost over and teams are filling out the end of their rosters, yet Tristan Thompson is still not part of the Cavs roster.
This is a big surprise for most basketball pundits who thought that the restricted free agency for the power forward is just a formality. It's very different from Greg Monroe, who was disgruntled all year and was just about in every trade rumor the entire season.
Thompson's play and his attachment to LeBron James almost made the signing a no-brainer, and the $ 80 million/ 5 year deal was a very reasonable, even generous one.
The latest development-or non-development, shows signs that this will not end well for the Cavaliers. LeBron James himself called a mini-training camp for his teammates in, of all places, Miami, and every healthy contracted player from the Cavaliers went. Every one, because Tristan Thompson is not one of those, as Fear the Sword points out.
"Timofey Mozgov is recovering from knee scope he received over the summer. But as it looks, Thompson is the only healthy Cavs player not a part of the pre-training camp workout, as Anderson Varejao, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were reportedly all in attendance, but were limited due to injuries."
But the article also cautioned about making conclusions based on this. Thompson and LeBron James are still buddies, as shown in this Instagram post.
Basketball Insiders columnist Steve Kyler has already hinted that there is only one fate for Thompson at this point if he does not want to sign the Cavs offer on the table.
"(Refferring to Thompson and fellow Rich Paul client Norris Cole of the New Orleans Pelicans) to truly maximize their earning potential, both players likely need to pick up their qualifying offer and play out the season this year and let the market determine their true worth."
This is a risk, as they could be injured during the season and it would hurt their value next year (as opposed to being guaranteed for five years) or in Thompson's case, he'll play behind Kevin Love. He might not get the playing time he had in the playoffs to sell himself as a max player next year.