Tristan Thompson Makes 80 Miliion Contract Mistake

Source: Getty / Getty

Tristan Thompson turned down an $80 million contract from the Cleveland Cavaliers, and 3 months later it looks like he overplayed his hand in free agency and lost.

Yahoo Finance reports:

Thompson hit restricted free agency this July, meaning the Cavs could match any offer he got, but, early into free agency, it was reported they were nearing an agreement on a five-year, $80 million contract.

It later came out that Thompson, after seeing the flurry of free-agency activity this summer, turned down the Cavs’ offer and wanted a max contract worth $94 million.

Since then, it’s been a downward spiral for Thompson, who’s running out of options, most recently with Basketball Insider’s Larry Coon stating he heard that the Cavaliers took away the $80 million offer.

This comes after Thompson reportedly lowered his overall demand to a three-year, $53 million deal — worth $17 million per year. While that’s only $1 million more per year than what the Cavs offered, the short-term nature of the contract takes away the Cavs long-term leverage, particularly if they wanted to trade Thompson. If the Cavs wanted to trade Thompson on that deal, they’d have a tough time getting assets from another team, since the other team would know Thompson’s contract would be ending soon.