According to Yahoo's Shams Charania, a number of NBA executives think that Tristan Thompson is "an asset Cleveland is willing to move in the right deal, such as one for the Los Angeles Clippers' DeAndre Jordan," prior to the Feb. 8 trade deadline. Obviously "right deal" is kind of subjective.
Thompson signed a five-year/$82 million extension prior to the 2015-16 championship-winning season, which came just months after he received a massive endorsement from the team's unofficial GM:
Nevertheless, this season Thompson has averaged a career low 19.0 minutes per game, which has produced equally unimpressive career lows in points and boards per contest (5.3 and 5.7, respectively). He also missed over a month, from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12, with a left calf strain.Â
This probably makes you think that the Cavs would have to give up something well in excess of Thompson to land Jordan (if you didn't already think that immediately), and you would be correct. Cleveland.com's Terry Pluto already explored this hypothetical, and "the Clippers would strongly consider it if the Cavs added the Brooklyn 2018 first-round draft pick that they acquired in the Kyrie Irving deal."
As pointed out by Bleacher Report, Pluto says the Cavs "don't plan to trade that pick" because if they do and LeBron bails in free agency after this season then they're going to be kicking themselves for blowing an opportunity to rebuild the franchise following an(other) exit by the league's best player.
Sounds like they'll have to get creative. Time for one of those speculative trade machine write-up things.
