Tag: Tristan Thompson

Lakers target Tristan Thompson to sign with Bulls

The Los Angeles Lakers won’t be bringing in Tristan Thompson this season.

The Los Angeles Lakers will not be the team bringing in veteran big man Tristan Thompson.

L.A. was a team to watch for his services with the Indiana Pacers set to waive Thompson to allow him to join a contender. The Pacers are looking to build the roster for the long run, and Thompson, who turns 31 in March, does not fit those plans.

Thompson will go through the waiver process, and once he clears it, he will sign a new deal with the Chicago Bulls, per Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle (h/t: Shams Charania of The Athletic):

The Lakers will have to wait for other names to hit the buyout market.

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Report: Pacers to waive Tristan Thompson, to sign with Bulls

The Bulls may be looking to add a veteran big man on the buyout market.

It sounds like the Chicago Bulls will have a new reserve big man in uniform following the All-Star break.

Following the Indiana Pacers 113-108 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, head coach Rick Carlisle announced that the team will be waiving Tristan Thompson on Thursday, and he has an idea where the big man will end up.

“He’ll be joining a contending team in the East. A little bit North…starts with a ‘C’ and ends with an ‘O’,” Carlisle said.

Sure sounds like Thompson is Windy City bound to join the Bulls. Thompson will likely become the backup center behind Nikola Vucevic to add some size and significant playoff experience.

To be able to sign Thompson, the Bulls will need to create a roster spot. Per K.C. Johnson of NBCS Chicago, the likely candidate to be waived is Alfonzo McKinnie.

In 33 games this season, Thompson is averaging 6.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

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Tristan Thompson a buyout name to watch for Lakers

Keep an eye on Tristan Thompson for the Los Angeles Lakers should he hit the buyout market.

With the Los Angeles Lakers not making any moves at the trade deadline, the only path to roster upgrades will go through the buyout market.

The Lakers are expected to be a suitor for veteran guard Goran Dragic. The San Antonio Spurs recently bought out his contract, and his ball-handling, off-ball shooting and playmaking would bolster the guard rotation.

Beyond the guard slots, the Lakers could definitely use more frontcourt depth. Indiana Pacers center Tristan Thompson is a name to watch, says Michael Scotto of HoopsHype:

 I’m keeping my eye on Tristan Thompson. He’s a guy that can be a part of a playoff rotation and help a team. The Los Angeles Lakers are a team to keep an eye on should Thompson agree to a buyout with the Indiana Pacers. He certainly has a lot of relationships there, and his rebounding ability would help them.

Before getting dealt to the Pacers, Thompson averaged 6.2 points and 5.4 rebounds in 15.2 minutes per game with the Sacramento Kings. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he doesn’t fit with Indiana’s long-term plans.

The Lakers would need to waive someone like DeAndre Jordan to clear a roster spot since Jordan is no longer a reliable contributor after beginning the season as a starter.

Thompson is also a Klutch Sports client, so the ties with LeBron James and company could add more juice to the rumor.

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Tristan Thompson made a pretty great point about playing in the NBA during his NSFW rant

Points were made.

The Sacramento Kings have been one of the more disappointing teams in the NBA so far this season.

They’re off to a 6-9 start and are just outside of the play-in range behind the Oklahoma City Thunder (!!!!) and Memphis Grizzlies. And, look, it’s still early. But being behind the Thunder in anything is not a great look for any team. That’s why Luke Walton is on the hot seat now.

Things got worse for the Kings on Wednesday night when the team lost 107-97 to the Timberwolves.

Tristan Thompson was asked about the team’s effort and whether they needed to be more motivated by Walton after the loss. He teed off on a NSFW rant that…he actually made some pretty good points in.

He says it’s not about Walton. It’s not his job to get players ready to play — they should already be ready.

 

“It’s not about coach Walton inspiring you…You’ve got to be ready to play. Your number is called, you’re in the damn game. I don’t need to f****** coach to inspire me. Never that, never have, never will. The day I need a coach to inspire me is the day I’m retiring. I’ll go play with my kids in the park.”

Sheesh. Well, clearly, points were made here.

Thompson is right. Needing a coach for inspiration sounds good, but at the end of the day these are professional basketball players playing at the highest level. It’s not about inspiration at that point — it’s about execution.

If people want to blame Walton for something, blame him for his system. Blame him for the X’s and O’s not playing out how they should.

But inspiration? That’s not on him. That’s on the player, as Thompson said in more than a few colorful words. Walton shouldn’t be blamed for that.

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Five players to watch to use the Tristan Thompson traded player exception on

Boston has become adept with the use of non-simultaneous trades, and have three of note to work with.

The Boston Celtics have become pioneers in the art of juggling traded player exceptions (TPEs) to maintain cap flexibility and manage their overall luxury tax burden, deftly using second-round draft picks to allow the franchise to add or deal away players

The team possesses three such TPEs of note on top of two smaller ones (for $500,000 from the Moses Brown trade and for $370,564 from the Jeff Teague trade). The smaller ones are unlikely to be used given that such exceptions are the space into which a team completes a non-simultaneous trade. That means any player incoming will need to make no more than $100,000 above the dollar amount in each TPE, which cannot be combined or added to otherwise.

Apart from those, Boston has TPEs for $17.1 million from the Evan Fournier trade, $9.7 million from the Tristan Thompson deal, and just over $5 million left from the Kemba Walker trade. They expire July 18, July 7, and May 17 respectively. Today, we’ll look at some of our favorite options the Celtics could trade for with the Thompson TPE.

Boston Celtics 2020-21 individual players grades: Tristan Thompson

The veteran big man had a rough first season in Boston, but not all of it was his fault.

Now that the 2020-21 Boston Celtics season is firmly in the rear-view mirror, it’s possible to spend some time taking stock of how each player did with the opportunity he had.

To that end, we are grading every player who put in time on the basketball court for the Celtics this season, including all 15 members of the regular roster, both two-way players and the players the team cut or traded away. That’s 21 players altogether, and today’s focus is veteran big man Tristan Thompson, signed by then-team president Danny Ainge to the taxpayer mid-level exception in the offseason to try and shore up Boston’s frontcourt rotation with a seasoned player.

Let’s assess how well he filled that role in context this past season.

Report: Celtics like chances to resign Fournier; Thompson may stay

With Kemba Walker being traded and Al Horford returning to Boston, what does that mean for the rest of the Celtics roster?

Brad Stevens has wasted no time in shaking up the roster as news broke this morning of the Celtics trading Kemba Walker as Al Horford returns to Boston.

It seemed clear that the Celtics roster would look different come next season but for a move to be made this early? That was a bit of a surprise.

With Walker out and Horford back in a Celtics uniform alongside Moses Brown, the question of which other Celtics will be on their way out the door begin to service.

Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe hinted on Twitter following the trade of potential roster moves going forward this offseason.

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Report: Celtics like chances to resign Fournier; Thompson may stay

With Kemba Walker being traded and Al Horford returning to Boston, what does that mean for the rest of the Celtics roster?

Brad Stevens has wasted no time in shaking up the roster as news broke this morning of the Celtics trading Kemba Walker as Al Horford returns to Boston.

It seemed clear that the Celtics roster would look different come next season but for a move to be made this early? That was a bit of a surprise.

With Walker out and Horford back in a Celtics uniform alongside Moses Brown, the question of which other Celtics will be on their way out the door begin to service.

Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe hinted on Twitter following the trade of potential roster moves going forward this offseason.

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WATCH: The best of Boston Celtics center Tristan Thompson in 2020-21

His inaugural season with Boston had an awkward start, but strong finish.

Things could have gone better for Tristan Thompson in his first season with his new team. But, with no training camp to learn how the Boston Celtics would use him, an awkward “double big” lineup to operate in after a long layoff from high-level basketball and a whopper of a COVID case mid-season, the Canadian center was playing catch-up from day one.

Even still, he managed to become an important part of the Celtics’ rotation, comfortable in a flexible role that could see him start one day and come off of the bench the next.

While his 7.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game with Boston are a little below his career averages, the numbers only tell part of the tale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnZRterD0BA

Watch the video embedded above to see the highlights of Thompson’s first season in green in white in the clip assembled by YouTuber Tomasz Kordylewski.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

Tristan Thompson is ‘super excited’ to play in front of fans at TD Garden – and it shows

The veteran big man took it to another level with a home audience to cheer him on for Game 3.

Boston Celtics veteran big man Tristan Thompson was a force to be reckoned with in the team’s 125 – 119 win over the Brooklyn Nets in Game of their first-round series Friday night, easily having his best game as a Celtic to date, spurred on by the energy of the crowd.

Thompson recorded 19 points, 13 rebounds, and an assist on 8-of-13 shooting including going 3-of-4 from the free-throw line in a high-energy outing that hearkened back to his championship days with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Asked what he thought of the game and the atmosphere with fans in the arena, the Canadian big man was ebulliently anticipatory in his reply.

“It was good, but I can’t [expletive] wait until Sunday,” he exclaimed.