In prolonged contract negotiations, there is always the possibility of an irrevocable upending of the dialogue. The context of restricted free agency in the NBA with the key word being 'restricted', usually means the talks operate above a safety net.

Tristan Thompson’s restricted free agency went unexpectedly long, especially since there were reports on Day 1 of free agency that the two sides were close to agreement on a five-year, $80 million deal. For an extra $2 million, Thompson and the Cavaliers agreed upon a five-year, $82 million contract 112 days later.

Both sides were equally insistent, but there is far more for Thompsons to lose in not eventually taking the type of contract that seemed entirely unreasonable to most when he rejected a four-year, $52 million extension offer before the 14-15 season. The Cavaliers are already paying Kevin Love max money and LeBron James is certainly capable of playing power forward, which may even be their optimal lineup against teams going small to get Timofey Mozgov off the court. Between Mozgov, Love, Anderson Varejao, Thompson and occasionally LeBron, there’s a lot of options at center and power forward for those 96 minutes per game.

The Cavaliers could have let Thompson remain in limbo all season, or even let him sign with the Portland Trail Blazers or Philadelphia 76ers, not match it and still win the championship. Thompson won’t start and probably won’t play 30 minutes per game. Thompson is worth that type of salary and luxury tax hit to the Cavaliers as an insurance policy, which in fact was proven out during the playoffs when they still won two series and two games in the Finals without Love and with Thompson playing a central role. 

When LeBron James returned to the Cavaliers in 2014, there was an understanding and a duty on the part of Dan Gilbert that there would be no financial shortcuts as there were with the Miami Heat when they amnestied Mike Miller for example. To be in business with LeBron at this stage of his career is to acknowledge his salary is far less than what he’d earn on an open market and massive luxury tax bills is the price of that institutional discount.

Thompson was the first true test for Gilbert and it’s a case where both sides effectively won. Gilbert has now committed more than $290 million this offseason on five players to follow-up on Kyrie Irving's max extension last year, and precedes LeBron's ubermax next summer and presumably a max for Mozgov as well. This team will cost Gilbert over $170 million in combined payroll and luxury taxes even if they don't cash in that Brendan Haywood traded player exception this season.

Thompson’s contract is identical to Draymond Green’s five-year, $82 million deal with the Golden State Warriors. Green is the second most critical player to what makes the Warriors title contenders and Thompson is no higher than fifth. 

With a league average PER, a limited offensive game and pedestrian rim protection, the value to the Cavaliers is the gravity he commands as an offensive rebounder, his versatility switching on screens and that he is at the very least a young and improving player. Thompson isn’t a conventional big but his skills follow the trends of the NBA and he has more value within the Cavaliers’ existing parts than he would for the type of team that will have max cap space to offer him in 2016.

The Cavaliers have an unbalanced portfolio of players right now with Kyrie Irving on one end, LeBron, Love, Thompson and Mozgov in the frontcourt, and Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith (two different kinds of unreliable) on the wings. Keeping Thompson means insurance for injury and minutes management now and the flexibility for a trade in the future; it is difficult to envision a scenario where both Love and Thompson remain with the Cavaliers for the lives of their contracts assuming Mozgov is re-signed next summer. As important as the tax savings for the Cavaliers with this below max deal is that it is now also infinitely more tradeable.

The surprising aspect of these negotiations was that LeBron wrapped up his new contract before Thompson, which was originally the plan by Rich Paul and Mark Termini. At least publicly, LeBron appeared more annoyed at both sides than genuinely angry or even concerned that a compromise existed. Ultimately, players like LeBron who sign one-year deals don’t threaten because they don’t have to.

Grade for Cavaliers: A-

Without the return of LeBron and the injury to Love in the playoffs, Thompson likely would have remained an undifferentiated power forward trying to get away with being an undersized center as his best possible contribution. The four-year, $52 million contract the Cavaliers offered Thompson likely would have been his best offer without LeBron, even with the rising cap of 2016. 

Thompson aligned with LeBron and Rich Paul, and took the Cavaliers to the edge of the season and came up $12 million short. They could have taken this into the season and the possibility of an injury to Love, Mozgov or LeBron that would have changed the calculus for the Cavaliers, but that would have also meant risking it all and that would have been a bad bet for a player who probably wouldn’t be one of the first 50 players selected in the vacuum of a redraft of the NBA. Becoming the sixth highest paid power forward in the NBA next season has to be considered a good day.

Grade for Tristan Thompson: B+