Do Cleveland Cavaliers Have to Choose Between Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson?
Training camp is a time for every NBA team to get a feel for what the coming season has in store. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, their return to business in Independence, Ohio, could serve as a deeper, more complex glimpse into the future, when all is said and done.
Tristan Thompson's presence in practice has been limited to whispers about his contract status and Voldemort-like references to the Toronto native.
LeBron James described Thompson's holdout as "kind of like the elephant in the room all over, for everybody," per the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Joe Vardon.
"The last thing you need is a distraction when you try to make a championship run. And we have that right now," he continued. "It’s unfortunate for both sides that we’re going through it right now as a team."
This, after James posted a photo with Thompson from a mutual friend's wedding the night prior.
As for head coach David Blatt, he doesn't seem at all concerned about Thompson's absence at the moment.
"Right now, my thoughts are just about the guys that are here and how hard and how well they are working and no specific expectation otherwise,” he said, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin. "Just happy to see our guys working as well as they are."
Among those hard at work: Kevin Love, Cleveland's incumbent starter at power forward. While Thompson's holdout has James imploring all involved to "Get something done. Both sides," via Vardon, Love's work in camp has the Cavs confident in the All-Star's return from shoulder surgery—and could, in time, push concern about Tristan's situation to the back burner.
"I just think he's more comfortable in the situation that he's in," James said of Love earlier in camp, per McMenamin. "He's got a year under his belt; he knows what he expects out of himself and what his teammates expect out of him. I expect big things from him this year with a year up under his belt."
Those heightened expectations were born not only out of Love's individual talent, but also Blatt's vision for how better to incorporate that talent after a bumpy debut together in 2014-15.
"No question, this summer we looked for and identified ways that we can take advantage of Kev's unique skill set, and hopefully we'll see that on the floor," said Blatt, per McMenamin.
Love scarcely got to show off the full depth and breadth of his abilities with the Cavs last season. Amid the chaos of piecing together a star-studded squad by the seat of his pants, Blatt often deployed Love, a sharp post-up player and superb passer at his core, primarily as a floor-stretching 4. According to NBA.com, he posted up just 24.1 percent of the time last season, while Basketball-Reference.com noted that he took more shots from beyond the arc than he did from within 10 feet of the rim.
Love actually launched more three-pointers per game during his last season in Minnesota than he did throughout his first in Cleveland. But with the Timberwolves, he did a lot of everything: passing, posting, shooting, rebounding and on and on.
In Minneapolis, he was the man. In Northeast Ohio, he was the third wheel behind James and Kyrie Irving, both of whom were used to handling the ball and initiating the offense. Love's performance suffered nearly across the board—just as Chris Bosh, who was once third in Miami's pecking order behind James and Dwyane Wade, predicted could happen.
James now has a prediction of his own for his current frontcourt sidekick: that Love "will do some of the things he did prior to last year," per McMenamin.
If that means manning the middle more and being a major factor on the boards (Love averaged 13.1 rebounds in the five seasons prior to his arrival in Cleveland), Thompson's potential role could really shrink.
That was bound to happen this season by virtue of Love's return to the lineup. Thompson, whose streak of 189 straight starts was snapped on opening night last year, was never likely to top the depth chart at power forward as long as Love was healthy. As Grantland's Zach Lowe wrote of Thompson's limitations:
"He’s a complete non-shooter, and he hasn’t learned to compensate by tossing quick-hitting interior dishes through the tiny slivers that open when he rolls to the basket. He just doesn’t read the floor fast enough. He likes to pause, gather the ball, bring it below his waist, and prime for the next move as help defenders swipe at him.
Thompson is not an especially explosive above-the-rim finisher. He needs time to load up for jumps, and defenders use that window to rotate over and swat him. That’s not ideal for a garbage man, and Thompson on offense is basically that — a bouncy mooch.
"
This isn't to say that Thompson wasn't, isn't or won't be tremendously valuable to the Cavs. As he showed during his 15 postseason starts, Thompson can be a terror on the offensive boards and, unlike Love, has the ability to credibly defend multiple positions and lock them down from time to time.
But Love has been one of the NBA's premier rebounders for years now. And if he ends up spending more time on the block this season, there won't be as much room in the middle for Thompson to roam—let alone for James and Irving to drive.
At this point, Thompson's biggest bargaining chip may be his health. He hasn't missed a game in almost four years and is currently fit to play. The same can't be said for the rest of Cleveland's crop of bigs, as Lowe recounted:
"Love is still recovering from shoulder surgery, though he could be ready for opening day. [Timofey] Mozgov is limited after offseason knee surgery. Anderson Varejao is recovering from an Achilles tear, and he’s a center anyway. Sasha Kaun is an unknown at this level. Iman Shumpert is out for three months, which could force Richard Jefferson into playing emergency minutes on the wing instead of as a small-ball power forward.
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But temporary setbacks shouldn't and likely won't cause Cavs general manager David Griffin to cave to Thompson's demands. Nor is Cleveland quite that thin up front in reality, thanks to James' ability to fill in (and dominate) at the 4.
Still, however long Thompson holds out, the Cavs won't be better off without him. He's not a superstar by any stretch, but the skills he brings to the table (i.e. offensive rebounding, picking-and-rolling, all-court defense, solid rim protection when he puts his mind to it) are tremendously valuable in today's NBA.
The Cavs can't simply snap their fingers and hope a comparable replacement appears. But a future first-round pick and the $10.5 million trade exception left behind by Brendan Haywood may be enough to find another, more cost-effective solution.
In truth, the Thompson-Love conundrum isn't just about those two. Paying Thompson about $17 million per season to back up Love, who inked a five-year deal worth about $110 million this summer, isn't ideal, but in a vacuum, it would be doable. The impending influx of national TV money into the league's coffers and subsequent trickling down of that scratch into salary caps across the league will make numbers that seem outlandish right now much more workable in the future.
The thing is, Thompson and Love won't be operating in a vacuum. Rather, the Cavs have other coming expenses to consider.
For one, James figures to cash in once the cap explodes. Assuming it checks in around $90 million for 2016-17, he could be looking at a salary north of $30 million for that season. If the cap continues to climb toward $108 million, as previous projections suggested it will, according to ESPN's Marc Stein, James' yearly take could land within spitting distance of $40 million by the summer of 2017.
That alone could push the Cavs precariously close to the cap. Throw in a big contract for Mozgov, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and Cleveland could continue to tip-toe along the luxury-tax line, even once it reaches into the fiscal stratosphere.
Team owner Dan Gilbert has never been one to hide his pocket book, and for good reason. But even he might shudder at the thought of paying Thompson, in addition to the rest of his players, when doing so could cost him many more millions in luxury-tax penalties—despite James' insistence.
| James | $22,970,500 | $24,004,173 (P.O.) | ||
| Love | $19,689,000 | $21,165,675 | $22,642,350 | $24,119,025 |
| Irving | $16,407,500 | $17,638,063 | $18,868,625 | $20,099,188 |
| Varejao | $9,638,554 | $10,361,446 (N.G.) | $10,000,000 (N.G.) | |
| Shumpert | $8,988,765 | $9,662,922 | $10,337,079 | $11,011,234 (P.O.) |
| Mozgov | $4,950,000 | |||
| J.R. Smith | $5,000,000 | $5,375,000 (N.G.) | ||
| Mo Williams | $2,100,000 | $2,194,500 (P.O.) | ||
| Sasha Kaun | $1,276,000 | $1,333,420 | $1,666,775 (Q.O.) | |
| Matthew Dellavedova | $1,147,276 | $1,434,095 (Q.O.) | ||
| Joe Harris | $845,059 | $980,431 (N.G.) | $1,251,245 (Q.O.) | |
| Total | $93,012,654 | $94,149,725 | $64,755,074 | $55,229,456 |
Griffin could have his own reasons for holding the line, too. Signing Thompson, then James and Mozgov, wouldn't leave him much, if any, wiggle room in which to reshape the roster as needed over time. His Cavs would essentially be locked into their current incarnation for the foreseeable future.
That is, unless ownership and the front office are both comfortable cutting Anderson Varejao and his non-guaranteed contract after this coming campaign.
There are worse possible outcomes, to be sure. A core of James, Love, Irving, Mozgov, Thompson and Shumpert is probably enough to contend for the Eastern Conference crown year in and year out.
But how might this group match up against the West's best? And what caliber of player could the Cavs afford to fill in around it going forward?
For now, the answer is simple: If Cleveland wants to shed a distraction or two from its docket and contend for a championship this season, its best bet is to bring back Thompson. But if those in control of the Cavs aren't comfortable, in terms of dollars and long-term basketball sense, with keeping both Thompson and Love on the payroll, there's one clear solution.
And he already has the skills and the salary to solidify his spot among Cleveland's Big Three.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
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