Three weeks out from tip off in the 2015-16 NBA season and Tristan Thompson remains in some bizarre form of basketball purgatory.
Seeking a five-year, $94-million max contract from the Cleveland Cavaliers, negotiations appeared to stall this week after Thompson refused to sign his qualifying offer.
This has left the Canadian big man outside looking in as LeBron James and fellow Cavs commence training camp and pre-season trials.
With unprecedented depth at the big man spots and a luxury tax bill rivalling the Greek debt crisis, it is easy to understand why the Cavaliers would be playing hard ball in negotiations.
The Cavs already provided a max contract to Kevin Love and have big money tied up in Anderson Varejao and Timofey Mozgov for the coming season.
When you also consider that the best basketballer in the world, LeBron James, shares a lot of minutes at the four for the Cavs and the case for keeping Thompson on huge money seems shaky at best.
However a number of other key components remain at play.
The aforementioned trio of Love, Varejao and Mozgov are all returning from major surgery this season and share an injury history that would make Pat Cummins blush.
Add to this the fact that James has more miles on him than Bronwyn Bishop’s helicopter and a resilient player like Thompson who has barely missed a game in his three year career looks at lot more valuable.
On the court, Thompson remains an intriguing prospect. Like Liam Neeson’s character in Taken, he has a very particular set of skills – a set of skills valuable in the modern ‘small ball’ NBA.
Thompson proved himself as the premier offensive rebounder in the NBA during last season’s playoffs after absolutely decimating the Celtics, Chicago Bulls, and Atlanta Hawks, on the glass in the early rounds.
This skill alone combined with his elite level pick and roll defence will ensure his value remains high throughout the league.
Defensively, Thompson has a unique ability to defend the traditional fives before switching onto guards and limiting their opportunity to score.
While Mathew Dellavedova received plaudits as the ‘Curry stopper’ during last season’s finals as well as his defence on Jeff Teague in the Eastern Conference Finals, much of the credit needs to rest with Thompson.
It was his ability to switch onto both guards and use his length and agility to upset rhythm and force tough shots that impacted the Hawks series and nearly swung the Finals.
Given Kevin Love’s wanton impression of road kill on the defensive end, Thompson provides the Cavaliers with a unique point of difference and a foil to Love’s foibles.
Thompson has proved himself as a valuable piece on a Championship level team despite lacking any sort of offensive presence and possessing an inability to decide which hand to shoot free throws with.
So where does this leave the Cavs?
Well this is where it gets tricky.
With solid arguments for and against offering up a max contract the largest elephant in the room remains LeBron James and his relationship with Thompson.
Thompson and LeBron are tight, regular old school bros who share the same manager, James’ long-time friend, Rich Paul.
Paul has a reputation as a dogged negotiator, which one can afford to be when they represent the world’s best player.
LeBron has made it clear in the past that he feels Thompson is a max level player and has already left the Cavs once after concerns at the lack of fiscal freedom demonstrated by ownership.
In saying that, the Cavs spending spree so far this season has made Mikhail Prokhorov look like a tight arse and the organisation is facing a luxury tax bill never before seen in the NBA.
Is this enough to appease LeBron if Tristan and the Cavs can’t come to an agreement and his close mate is forced to sit the season out?
Is Dan Gilbert ballsy enough to risk losing the greatest player of his generation twice in five years?
With all cards still on the table there’s a lot to play out for both parties.
The only thing we do know for certain is that when talking Cleveland – all roads go through LeBron.
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