Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Tristan Thompson is a player with an average skillset and above average effort level.
For what he offers on the court, Thompson should be paid like a middling forward with solid size. The Cavaliers presented Thompson with a four-year, $52 million contract and he declined it, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
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Thompson is unlikely to pull in similar offers on the restricted free-agent market, but Klutch Sports could use James' one-year deal as leverage at the negotiating table, Wojnarowski noted.
The initial offer would have landed Thompson a deal well worth his value in the league. In fact, $13 million per season is beyond his market number. Picked in the 2011 draft, Thompson, who was taken at No. 4 by Cleveland, would land somewhere in the middle of contract extensions signed by players from his class, as ProBasketballTalk.com noted.
While Thompson would be paid less than players with large deals like his Cavs teammate Kyrie Irving, Wizards guard John Wall and Warriors shooter Klay Thompson, he could have signed a deal comparable to those Ricky Rubio, Nikola Vucevic and Kenneth Faried play under.