Cleveland Cavaliers news: Tristan Thompson softens stand, signing soon?

Tristan Thompson still doesn’t have a new deal from the Cleveland Cavaliers, so the power forward won’t be at Cavaliers Media Day on Monday, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

Thompson and his agent, Rich Paul, put up an offer of a three-year maximum deal worth $53 milion, which the Cavaliers turned down last week.

It now seems likely Thompson will miss the start of practice Tuesday but the sides are not framing the situation as a holdout at this point.

The 6-foot-10 Thompson has until Thursday to accept the Cavs’ one-year qualifying offer of $6.9 million to become an unrestricted free agent next year if no deal is reached. Should this rumor be eventually proven to be correct, then it could be said that Tristan Thompson opted to stay with LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love despite the substantial decrease in his target income.

Cavaliers star LeBron James organized a number of off-season teambuilding activities this summer, including an in-depth mini-camp session in Miami.

Thompson has until Thursday, October 1 to sign the qualifying offer which he will likely wait until the last minute to do in hopes that the Cavs give in to his demands. Today we’ll see how this situation affects his teammates and coach when they address the media.

One may recall a statement made by Paul saying that if Thompson takes the qualifying offer, his client would no longer return to play for Cleveland next season. Cleveland can extend his qualifying-offer deadline but is not expected to do so. However, they are willing to up their five-year, $80-million offer, sources informed Northeast Ohio Media Group, but to what extent is unknown at this time.