The Cleveland Cavaliers kicked off their 2015 Media Day on Monday afternoon, but they did so without the best backup power forward in the NBA in Tristan Thompson.
With Thompson and the Cavs still at a contract stalemate, it made sense for Thompson not to appear at Media Day so he isn’t forced to answer questions about his future. Thompson isn’t required to show up and will not be fined because technically, he is a restricted free agent and hasn’t committed to any team yet.
David Griffin was asked a lot about Thompson, including whether he was confident in coming to terms on an agreement with Thompson. Here are a series of quotes from David Griffin on Media Day.
“We love Tristan Thompson. We feel very good about where this is. … Very confident we’re gonna have a terrific team and very confident (Thompson) will be part of it.”
“I wouldn’t really characterize my confidence level, I’m very confident that we’re going to have a terrific team that he’s going to be a vital part of.”
“Obviously we love Tristan Thompson and we want him to be part of our future moving forward and I think everything in our actions and our offer indicate that. We also believe very strongly that Tristan loves this team and he loves competing with these guys. We think everything in his actions to this point have demonstrated the same.”
“I think we feel very good about where this is because of who Tristan is and the relationship he has with his teammates.”