SEPTEMBER 12: The Cavaliers have officially signed Thompson, per NBA.com’s transaction log. His deal includes a partial guarantee, tweets John Hollinger of The Athletic.
SEPTEMBER 11: The Cavaliers are finalizing a contract with free agent big man Tristan Thompson, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
It will be a reunion between the two sides, as Thompson spent his first nine NBA seasons in Cleveland after the team selected him fourth overall in the 2011 draft. The 32-year-old was a key member of the Cavs’ championship run in 2016, starting all 21 playoff games and averaging 6.7 points and 9.0 rebounds while playing solid defense.
It would be shocking if Thompson received anything but a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum, considering he barely played at all in 2022/23. He signed with the Lakers on the final day of the regular season, appearing in six of the team’s 16 playoff games for 32 total minutes.
Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com confirms Charania’s report (via Twitter), noting that the Cavs currently only have 13 players on standard contracts. Teams are required to carry at least 14 players for the majority of the season, so it seems Thompson will hold that spot for now.
Thompson averaged 9.4 points and 8.7 boards over his 619 regular season games with Cleveland. He signed a two-year deal Boston as a free agent in 2020, but only lasted one year, having been traded in August 2021. He played for three different teams — Sacramento, Indiana and Chicago — in ’21/22.
We’ll have to wait and see if Thompson receives any guaranteed money from the Cavaliers. His level of play has certainly dropped off in recent years, but he had some good moments during his brief stint with the Lakers, and he’ll provide frontcourt depth and veteran leadership for Cleveland.
Once Thompson’s deal is complete, the Cavs will have 17 players under contract, with all three two-way slots filled.
Very nice ….. he was solid in Cleveland. Gives them depth. And he and Mobley can go small. Even though they are big. Good move
How is this guy still collecting a paycheck and Enes Freedom is blacklisted?
Alot of players are black listed
Enes can’t defend, that’s why. Thompson can’t shoot, that’s why he only gets the minimum to play 3rd string.
@ervin…That is simple. Freedom Enes isn’t being blacklisted. He’s soft. He doesn’t play defense or rebound particularly well. He also doesn’t shoot from beyond the arc. The days for those types of Centers are long gone.
If Thompson can still play a significant role in defending at the 4 and 5 spots this could be a big pickup. That said this shows JB’s fear of using unproven players. It’s likely that Isaiah Mobley is a better player than either Tristan Thompson or Damian Jones right now. The logical move would be to promote Isaiah Mobley to a standard contract instead of making him reprove his superior level of skill. Thompson may be able to help but is just as likely to be a has been unable to really help. JB is so afraid to use unproven talent that he often uses has beens. Ed Davis is a perfect example. The team’s letting go of Isaiah Hartenstein and Moses Brown in consecutive seasons even after they performed well when used, also makes this clear. JB is an outstanding teacher of defense. However he has had great difficulty in developing players. His success in this area primarily comes from working with high draft picks like Evan Mobley and Darius Garland.
The one thing Enes Freedom CAN do is rebound. He’ll play 10 minutes and get 12 rebounds six offensive. He just can’t jump and he can’t defend and he has no outside shot. Plus he’s a polarizing personality. One Superior skill doesn’t outweigh 10 other things.
It’s like people say why isn’t Mac McClung signed somewhere? Well he can jump and he is creative offensively. But it doesn’t make up for the 10 other things he can’t do.
Enes Freedom has done one thing right everywhere he’s gone if the numbers are to be believed. The numbers show that when he is in the game his team shuts down the opposing defense.I get that he’s only 1 of 5 guys on the floor so he had help.That said when a center posts far above average defense numbers for 11 straight seasons on 6 different teams he probably is a big part of why. His career per 100 of 108 is the same number Evan Mobley posted last year while leading the league in defensive win shares. Defense is not Enes Freedom’s problem. That said he has been scapegoated by some teams that flamed out in either the regular season or playoffs. My guess is that he doesn’t mix well with others. I could be wrong about that but his defensive numbers have always been good. His shot blocking numbers are also excellent.
Defensive rating is a terrible stat for gauging individual defense. Is it the worst stat? No, that’s probably blocks per game. But it doesn’t help much. Christian Wood has better defensive rating relative to his teams than Kanter ever did. Centers almost exclusively get way more credit from defensive rating than they actually deserve, and Kanter had either equal or worse D-Rating than his teams did in almost every season of his career. And the only real exceptions are when the team as a whole sucked.
Also, the only way he can score is in post-ups. And unlike actually good post players, he can’t find open guys on kickouts and make the right play to supplement it. Nor can he just pull up from where he is if it’s not working. Same reason Jahlil Okafor isn’t in the league; too slow and too predictable.
Defense is his problem. It’s not even in his vocabulary.
Enes is old school. He’s a rebounder and plays solid D. Not a rim protector. His offense was inside gm. Which they do t use anymore. Plus he’s only a Center. Cavs don’t need another center.
Thompson is a PF that can play small ball center. Can also guard the perimeter. Bigs that guard the perimeter are more valuable today. This is about DEPTH. Depth is what separates good teams.
Agree in fact if there’s less than a vets minimum this bum deserves it.
This move was done for mainly one reason: To turn around the bad publicity surrounding the Kevin Love ‘desertion’ (booting).
Of course, if Tristan can still play… they’ll have a ferocious offensive rebounder in spots.
I find Tristan hard to watch. But the Cavs need some muscle. I’d send him for a couple weeks of intensive training with Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn at the Detroit School for Bad Boys. Then you send him in when you need an enforcer.
Thompson is consistently on the street, hardly a enforcer and is your bench coach.
He’s only 32. He got plenty left. Depth is a real weapon. He was a double double while a Cav. Plus he plays solid D.
Yeah but he’s sort of like Lamarcus aldridge. He was slow and dumpy when he was young, so even now at 32, though he’s not that old, but for him he’s even slower and dumpier.
LaMarcus Aldridge was sort of done at 34. He played like he was 40 when he was 26 so early 30s the guy is really done when most still have their quickness somewhat.
Nothing like LA.
It’s about depth at D. And a guy who’s won here. Teams win chips. Cavs trying to build a winner. He’s a good fit to me. He knows his place.
TT has nothing in the tank. He was signed for exactly 1 day last regular season and played a half and hour total when he 31. Hasn’t much changed by 32.
Yeah, the more I think about this, the more I think they’ll drop him as soon as something better comes along. Isaiah Mobley is actually a more useful big for this team because he can shoot and pass. Unless Evan has started shooting an average percentage on his jumpers,how can you use a third non-shooting big?
Evan Mobley is about average from everywhere except 3. And Allen is actually a decent midrange shooter; he just doesn’t do it much (though he does take about 30% of his shots from the short midrange area). Thompson’s value is that he fills one spot or the other while one of Mobley or Allen sits. I agree that Isaiah Mobley is likely to be better, but I don’t hate this move. We absolutely sucked at rebounding last year (25th in the league and 22nd in Offensive rebounds, though we did hold opponents in check in that regard, at least).
Plenty left if you are the depthless knickerbockers.
Now this genius just can’t help himself. You know what a dictionary is. Search it and then look up depth …..
Here’s a hint. “Your brain has no depth”
I will give TT the benefit of the doubt during game 4 of the WCF of the lakers vs nuggets. TT was playing great defense and effort against jokic than AD during the 2nd half. They should have let TT played out the rest of the 4th quarter than AD imo
must be retiring.