Yahoo mentioned Thompson in trade rumors

[colincb]

Apparently, it was more than the Cavs and Clippers (and BOS) that had an interest in TT.

Evan Dammarrell of Forbes recently reported that Toronto was a potential suitor for Thompson:

    “Thompson does have interested suitors on the market – mainly the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors, according to league sources.”

Chris Mannix of SI

"The Lakers would love to land Tristan Thompson, an ex-LeBron James teammate in Cleveland who would shore up the front line. The Raptors, who could lose both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, are expected to pursue the Toronto-born big man."

They didn't offer him a contract though so I don't consider them suitors.  He had contract offers from 3 teams, the Cavs, Clippers, and Celtics.  That is it.  The Lakers filled all their roster spots with other players and the Raptors never offered him a contract, so I'm sure they made some calls, but they didn't actually offer a contract.  When the Clippers offer came in they had already used the MLE on Ibaka so they had basically the minimum to offer.  It has been reported by several sources that the Cavs offer was less than Boston's.  He chose Boston because they gave him the most money and I do think it was a bit of a scramble by Ainge because Millsap had just turned Boston down and there weren't many players left on the market.  So Ainge saw Thompson still out there and gave him a big number on short years to ensure he got something out of free agency.  I do think though it was a mistake and I do think Ainge regrets the signing as Thompson isn't worth 9.5 million a year and never was.

How do you know that TOR didn't offer him a contract?

[LilRip]

Why are we looking to trade TT?

I’d rather trade Theis tbh. He’s an expiring and I think someone is going to overpay for him because “he can shoot” now.

[todd_days_41]

Apparently, it was more than the Cavs and Clippers (and BOS) that had an interest in TT.

Evan Dammarrell of Forbes recently reported that Toronto was a potential suitor for Thompson:

    “Thompson does have interested suitors on the market – mainly the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors, according to league sources.”

Chris Mannix of SI

"The Lakers would love to land Tristan Thompson, an ex-LeBron James teammate in Cleveland who would shore up the front line. The Raptors, who could lose both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, are expected to pursue the Toronto-born big man."

The Clippers & Lakers have nothing to offer other then their core players, so I would be puzzled about what they would offer. Toronto it's obvious it would involve Baynes + pick or role player (McCaw?)

Agreed. I've poked around the trade machine for some time on both LA teams and its very hard to make any kind of logical deal with either.

[todd_days_41]

Why are we looking to trade TT?

I’d rather trade Theis tbh. He’s an expiring and I think someone is going to overpay for him because “he can shoot” now.

Great. Trade 'em both. There's little reason why we should be sellers of everyone (but Brown, Tatum, Smart and R Williams) if the value is strong in return.

[Celtics2021]

Apparently, it was more than the Cavs and Clippers (and BOS) that had an interest in TT.

Evan Dammarrell of Forbes recently reported that Toronto was a potential suitor for Thompson:

    “Thompson does have interested suitors on the market – mainly the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors, according to league sources.”

Chris Mannix of SI

"The Lakers would love to land Tristan Thompson, an ex-LeBron James teammate in Cleveland who would shore up the front line. The Raptors, who could lose both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, are expected to pursue the Toronto-born big man."

The Clippers & Lakers have nothing to offer other then their core players, so I would be puzzled about what they would offer. Toronto it's obvious it would involve Baynes + pick or role player (McCaw?)

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell, I think a deal could get done on both sides if the Celtics would prefer to only have Time Lord on the books next offseason.  Otherwise it would depend how much the Lakers (i.e. LeBron) wants Thompson.  TT and Teague for Schroder works salarywise, and we'd get an upgrade at the backup PG, which is important with Kemba's health and Smart's style of play.  Does LeBron want to be point LeBron again for the rest of the year?

[colincb]

Apparently, it was more than the Cavs and Clippers (and BOS) that had an interest in TT.

Evan Dammarrell of Forbes recently reported that Toronto was a potential suitor for Thompson:

    “Thompson does have interested suitors on the market – mainly the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors, according to league sources.”

Chris Mannix of SI

"The Lakers would love to land Tristan Thompson, an ex-LeBron James teammate in Cleveland who would shore up the front line. The Raptors, who could lose both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, are expected to pursue the Toronto-born big man."

The Clippers & Lakers have nothing to offer other then their core players, so I would be puzzled about what they would offer. Toronto it's obvious it would involve Baynes + pick or role player (McCaw?)

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell, I think a deal could get done on both sides if the Celtics would prefer to only have Time Lord on the books next offseason.  Otherwise it would depend how much the Lakers (i.e. LeBron) wants Thompson.  TT and Teague for Schroder works salarywise, and we'd get an upgrade at the backup PG, which is important with Kemba's health and Smart's style of play.  Does LeBron want to be point LeBron again for the rest of the year?

My post, that has been responded to more than once, relates to last year's free agency and Moranis's claim that only LAC, CLE, and BOS were interested in TT. I apologize for any confusion.

[todd_days_41]

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell...

rrrrrrrrrriiiiight...

[keevsnick]

I would trade TT just to get the money off the books. Hin for Baynes would be fine with me for example, Baynes has a Team Option next year so you can have him as your third center this year then let him go this offseason.

[Celtics2021]

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell...

rrrrrrrrrriiiiight...

Mock the thought, but if you take the rumor that the Lakers are interested in Tristan as true, it's not a crazy leap to look at a roster with AD, Gasol, and Harrell and wonder why the heck a hard-capped team with $1.5 million in room would possibly be interested in another center that makes $9.2 million.  It's not a big leap to presuming they must not like one of their centers.  It's not AD, Gasol makes the minimum, and that leaves Harrell, who conveniently makes the identical amount as Thompson.

[Moranis]

Apparently, it was more than the Cavs and Clippers (and BOS) that had an interest in TT.

Evan Dammarrell of Forbes recently reported that Toronto was a potential suitor for Thompson:

    “Thompson does have interested suitors on the market – mainly the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors, according to league sources.”

Chris Mannix of SI

"The Lakers would love to land Tristan Thompson, an ex-LeBron James teammate in Cleveland who would shore up the front line. The Raptors, who could lose both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, are expected to pursue the Toronto-born big man."

They didn't offer him a contract though so I don't consider them suitors.  He had contract offers from 3 teams, the Cavs, Clippers, and Celtics.  That is it.  The Lakers filled all their roster spots with other players and the Raptors never offered him a contract, so I'm sure they made some calls, but they didn't actually offer a contract.  When the Clippers offer came in they had already used the MLE on Ibaka so they had basically the minimum to offer.  It has been reported by several sources that the Cavs offer was less than Boston's.  He chose Boston because they gave him the most money and I do think it was a bit of a scramble by Ainge because Millsap had just turned Boston down and there weren't many players left on the market.  So Ainge saw Thompson still out there and gave him a big number on short years to ensure he got something out of free agency.  I do think though it was a mistake and I do think Ainge regrets the signing as Thompson isn't worth 9.5 million a year and never was.

How do you know that TOR didn't offer him a contract?

What has been reported?  Now sure maybe the several different reporters are wrong and they did make an offer, but they also signed Baynes for most of the MLE around the time that Boston reached an agreement with Thompson, so hard to say who they preferred anyway.

[Moranis]

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell...

rrrrrrrrrriiiiight...

Mock the thought, but if you take the rumor that the Lakers are interested in Tristan as true, it's not a crazy leap to look at a roster with AD, Gasol, and Harrell and wonder why the heck a hard-capped team with $1.5 million in room would possibly be interested in another center that makes $9.2 million.  It's not a big leap to presuming they must not like one of their centers.  It's not AD, Gasol makes the minimum, and that leaves Harrell, who conveniently makes the identical amount as Thompson.

They made a few calls in the off season but then signed Harrell and Gasol without making Thompson an offer.  They made their choice. 

[Celtics2021]

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell...

rrrrrrrrrriiiiight...

Mock the thought, but if you take the rumor that the Lakers are interested in Tristan as true, it's not a crazy leap to look at a roster with AD, Gasol, and Harrell and wonder why the heck a hard-capped team with $1.5 million in room would possibly be interested in another center that makes $9.2 million.  It's not a big leap to presuming they must not like one of their centers.  It's not AD, Gasol makes the minimum, and that leaves Harrell, who conveniently makes the identical amount as Thompson.

They made a few calls in the off season but then signed Harrell and Gasol without making Thompson an offer.  They made their choice.

That doesn’t remotely disprove that the Lakers may be interested in Thompson today, and might even prefer him to Harrell today.  Also, I find it really interesting that you seem to know all the inner workings of who offered what to Thompson, and also how Thompson made his decision on where to go.  Do you have some connection to someone, or do you merely assume that if something wasn’t reported it must not have happened?

[Moranis]

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell...

rrrrrrrrrriiiiight...

Mock the thought, but if you take the rumor that the Lakers are interested in Tristan as true, it's not a crazy leap to look at a roster with AD, Gasol, and Harrell and wonder why the heck a hard-capped team with $1.5 million in room would possibly be interested in another center that makes $9.2 million.  It's not a big leap to presuming they must not like one of their centers.  It's not AD, Gasol makes the minimum, and that leaves Harrell, who conveniently makes the identical amount as Thompson.

They made a few calls in the off season but then signed Harrell and Gasol without making Thompson an offer.  They made their choice.

That doesn’t remotely disprove that the Lakers may be interested in Thompson today, and might even prefer him to Harrell today.  Also, I find it really interesting that you seem to know all the inner workings of who offered what to Thompson, and also how Thompson made his decision on where to go.  Do you have some connection to someone, or do you merely assume that if something wasn’t reported it must not have happened?

They could prefer Thompson to Harrell today, but why would they?  They are pretty similar to the players they were last year and they chose Harrell then because quite simply Harrell is better than Thompson.  I'm pretty confident every team would prefer Harrell to Thompson on similar contracts (which they have). 

Thompson in his entire career has been a financial mercenary.  He is all about the dollar.  Every contract decision he has made has been about extracting the most money out of his contracts.  He could have stayed in Cleveland and probably had his number retired.  He could have gone to the Clippers and potentially won another title.  He could have accepted a buy out last year and gone to a contender then as well.  But he didn't do any of those things because he likes money and makes his decisions based mostly on money.  I certainly have no inside information to this, but that is how it has appeared at every step of the way.  And the reporting all backs this up.  No other team likely offered him a contract, but even if some other team did, it would have been for less money than Boston, which is why Thompson is a Celtic.  He took the money.  There is nothing wrong with that, as most people would, especially if the money is significantly different, as it appears to have been in this case, but let's not pretend teams were beating down Thompson's door with big money offers.  That just didn't happen.

[todd_days_41]

This Harrell debate is silly. Guy won 6th man of the year last season and is a key piece of LAL team that's a champ favorite. If they could, they'd add Thompson as a back-up considering they're thin upfront.

Be serious, folks.

[Celtics2021]

If the Lakers preferred Thompson to Harrell...

rrrrrrrrrriiiiight...

Mock the thought, but if you take the rumor that the Lakers are interested in Tristan as true, it's not a crazy leap to look at a roster with AD, Gasol, and Harrell and wonder why the heck a hard-capped team with $1.5 million in room would possibly be interested in another center that makes $9.2 million.  It's not a big leap to presuming they must not like one of their centers.  It's not AD, Gasol makes the minimum, and that leaves Harrell, who conveniently makes the identical amount as Thompson.

They made a few calls in the off season but then signed Harrell and Gasol without making Thompson an offer.  They made their choice.

That doesn’t remotely disprove that the Lakers may be interested in Thompson today, and might even prefer him to Harrell today.  Also, I find it really interesting that you seem to know all the inner workings of who offered what to Thompson, and also how Thompson made his decision on where to go.  Do you have some connection to someone, or do you merely assume that if something wasn’t reported it must not have happened?

They could prefer Thompson to Harrell today, but why would they?  They are pretty similar to the players they were last year and they chose Harrell then because quite simply Harrell is better than Thompson.  I'm pretty confident every team would prefer Harrell to Thompson on similar contracts (which they have). 

Thompson in his entire career has been a financial mercenary.  He is all about the dollar.  Every contract decision he has made has been about extracting the most money out of his contracts.  He could have stayed in Cleveland and probably had his number retired.  He could have gone to the Clippers and potentially won another title.  He could have accepted a buy out last year and gone to a contender then as well.  But he didn't do any of those things because he likes money and makes his decisions based mostly on money.  I certainly have no inside information to this, but that is how it has appeared at every step of the way.  And the reporting all backs this up.  No other team likely offered him a contract, but even if some other team did, it would have been for less money than Boston, which is why Thompson is a Celtic.  He took the money.  There is nothing wrong with that, as most people would, especially if the money is significantly different, as it appears to have been in this case, but let's not pretend teams were beating down Thompson's door with big money offers.  That just didn't happen.

I'm sorry, what?  His contract decisions were:

1) Sign his rookie scale contract at the max 120%, like 100% of all rookies drafted in the top 10.
2) Have a protracted negotiation during restricted free agency, which isn't uncommon for players who's teams don't pull qualifying offers and who don't get max deals.   They're likely only able to negotiate with one team, as the others backed away due to the likelihood of a deal getting matched.  His took longer than normal, but he was no Donatas Motiejunas.
3) Sign with the Celtics in his first experience in unrestricted free agency.

He literally had one experience in unrestricted free agency, which happened to occur during one of the most condensed offseasons ever, signed with a team that lost in the conference finals for the third time in four seasons and was looking for an inside presence, and he's a mercenary only looking to get paid?  You are an interesting Celtics fan...