When Tristan Thompson dreamed about playing in the NBA, his dreams were big. He wanted to be a star. He wanted to help support his family. He wanted to make a name for Canadian basketball.
It’s all come true. The 6-foot-9 power forward from Brampton, Ont., has been one of the most talked about players in the post-season after being thrust into the Cleveland Cavaliers’ starting lineup when Kevin Love dislocated his shoulder in a first-round mix-up with Thompson’s future national team teammate Kelly Olynyk as the Cavaliers swept the Boston Celtics.
The key to his success? The willingness to adapt and the ability to figure out what adaptations he needed to make. And it’s all going to make him a very rich young man and another Canadian born player who will likely never play for his hometown Toronto Raptors in his prime.
He figured out how to find his place alongside LeBron James and James sounds like he’s not going to let his second-chance machine – Thompson is tied for second in the post-season with 3.9 offensive rebounds per game – leave Cleveland without a fight.
“Tristan should probably be a Cavalier for his whole career. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t,” James told reporters on Monday afternoon in Cleveland. “This guy is 24 years old. He’s played in 340‑plus straight games, and he’s gotten better every single season.
“It’s almost like what more can you ask out of a guy even though we ask for more out of him.
“He’s a young guy, but he’s a professional that loves to come to work every day,” James continued. “He plays his heart out every single night, and he has zero sense of entitlement in this league. All he cares about is coming into work. Whatever is given to him, he relishes the opportunity, and he’s a great teammate. So he’ll be here for a long time.”
While Thompson’s attributes are just now being realized by a wider audience, those who know him best say it’s same old, same old.
“He was always like that,” says Ro Russell, who coached a teenaged Thompson on the AAU circuit with Grassroots Elite Canada. “He could always find his niche. When he played for me he was a wing because he could handle and penetrate and he was so quick. But then he grew and when he went to the States they wanted him as a four. He always did what was necessary. He’s a winner. He always figures out what his team needs and does it.”
The Cavaliers have won seven of their past eight games since Thompson became a starter, and every game seems to bring another signature moment and another opportunity for broadcasters to gush about Thompson’s all-out style. The latest was James’ game-winning three in overtime that gave the Cavaliers a 3-0 series lead over Atlanta and an almost certain passage to the NBA Finals.
The play that set up LeBron’s bomb? An offensive rebound by Thompson, naturally. His hustle has been integral to a Cavs team undermined by injury and otherwise dependant on what offence James can create.
When I talked to Thompson last summer – shortly after the return of James to Cleveland – he had already come up with a game plan for how he was going to find success alongside offensive-minded stars and superstars the likes of James, Love and Kyrie Irving.
“My approach is to be the anchor of the team defensively, kind of a Dennis Rodman approach,” he said then. “That’s the mind set I have entering this year – ‘see ball get ball’ – if you’re a defensive anchor, the offence comes. All I have to do playing with guys like that is finish around the rim.”
Thompson will be a restricted free agent this summer, and every big play he makes should end up as a little more money in his pocket. And every bit of success he has with the Cavaliers makes the prospect of Thompson leaving Cleveland – and hey, it’s not like his hometown Toronto Raptors couldn’t use a high-energy power forward – ever more distant.
James is the most influential figure in the Cavaliers organization, and they share agent Rich Paul as well. Doubtless his boosting of Thompson has been heard to the top of the Cavaliers organization.
The question is what it’s going to cost the Cavs to keep him. As reported by Yahoo! Sports, Thompson turned down a four-year extension worth $52-million at the beginning of the 2014-15 season. Even now many NBA insiders felt that was a rich deal for Thompson, who ended up coming off the bench for the Cavaliers behind Love.
But timing is everything. Love’s injury has given Thompson a platform possible to prove his worth and he’s taken full advantage by playing a tireless brand of basketball that is the perfect compliment for James.
Thompson’s numbers may never overwhelm anyone — he’s averaging 8.9 points and 9.8 rebounds in the playoffs — but he’s proven he can excel alongside James by doing a job short on glamour but long on significance. In the past Thompson had visions of being a be face-up scorer who was trusted to shoot the ball — that was part of his motivation for his much-heralded switch from a left-handed shot to a right-handed one before the 2013-14 season.
But then James arrived and the Cavs’ needs changed and Thompson focused on what they needed: offensive rebounding and defensive energy.
“Not everyone gets that. That’s why you see a lot talented players come into the NBA for short minutes and then they’re gone. Some guys don’t understand what it takes to play in the league,” says Chris Babcock, a player development coach with the Philadelphia 76ers who worked with Thompson at the University of Texas. “You’re there to make your team better, however you can.”
Thompson’s approach was no surprise to Portland Trail Blazers assistant and Canadian men’s national team coach Jay Triano, who coached him for the first time at the FIBA Tournament of the Americas in the summer of 2013. Thompson had leverage and pedigree, but didn’t act or play like it.
“I was surprised at that and happy with that,” said Triano, who is hopeful to have Thompson playing for him again at the Pan-Am Games in July and in the Olympic qualifying tournament beginning in August. “That summer he averaged 10 and 10 with us, but he didn’t demand the ball … we gave it to him more times than not, but he doesn’t demand it, and more than that he was a great leader for us because he accepted his role and knows who he is as a player.
“That’s his biggest strength. He knows who he is on our national team and he knows who he is as a player. … We never even had to talk about it. That’s the understanding he has. A lot of players think they’re better than they are. He knows he’s a worker and he’s going to outwork whoever he plays.”
And the kid from Brampton has so expertly embraced his blue-collar role that he’s poised to become the richest Canadian basketball player ever and likely trail only Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds as the highest-paid Canadian in any sport.
Is five years and $75-million too much for a player with a working class job description? We’ll find out this summer. With the NBA’s new television contract coming into effect for the 2016-17 season – tripling the current $900-million annual deal – players like Thompson could be in a great position to get significant jumps in salary, as more teams will feel comfortable taking a run at a restricted free agent (where the Cavaliers have the right to match any offer), pumping up his value while Cleveland will have an easier time absorbing his contract going forward.
And in James he’s got friends in high places, which can’t hurt.