Forward Tristan Thompson, who is still currently the Cleveland Cavaliers' free agent, and agent Rich Paul could be eyeing the Toronto Raptors in 2016 free agency. According to Sheridan Hoops, Paul may be steering his client to Toronto.
"Thompson is a Toronto kid and I'm sure he has a strong following at home." an Eastern Conference executive told Sheridan. Cavaliers training camp will begin in less than a month, and Thompson and the Cavaliers have yet to reach an agreement.
Thompson is looking for a big pay raise reportedly worth five years and $94 million after finishing top 5 in 2014-15 Sixth Man of the Year voting and stepping into a bigger role during the Cavaliers' playoff run while Kevin Love was out with injury.
Paul told Chris Haynes of cleveland.com that if Thompson plays this upcoming season on the qualifying offer, it would be his last season in Cleveland. Thompson would then become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2016 when the salary cap is expected to go up.
If that were to happen, Thompson and his agent could lean towards signing with the Raptors. Thompson was born in Toronto, and he started his high school career in nearby Brampton. His good friend and former college teammate at Texas, Cory Joseph, signed a four-year deal with the Raptors this off-season, also being a Toronto native.
According to Scotto, executives around the NBA have already started to connect the dots thinking about the marketing possibilities for Canadian-born, potentially high-priced free agent pickup.
Thompson would likely have a starting role if he went to Toronto in free agency next year, as the Raptors have demoted at the power forward position. They lost Amir Johnson in free agency, and now Patrick Patterson, James Johnson, and Luis Scola will fight for the starting 4 slot this season.
Click here for VAVEL Raptors' roundtable on this battle.
The Cavaliers will definitely look to keep Thompson in a Cleveland uniform for the long-term. The two sides were closing in on deal for five years and $80 million on the first day of free agency, but Thompson ended up rejecting the offer. He feels that other players as talented as him have gotten even bigger pay days.
This is going to be a very interesting situation for Thompson fans and cavs fans in terms of whether they can work out a deal long term for him to stay in Cleveland. It has also been noted that LeBron James thinks Thompson should be a Cleveland Cavalier for life.