Tristan Thompson Agrees to $82M Deal With Cleveland Cavaliers, Ends Holdout

It's finally the end of the holdout for Tristan Thompson after the Cleveland Cavaliers signed him to a five-year contract worth $82 million on Wednesday.

Thompson's agent Rich Paul revealed this detail in a Yahoo Sports report which also said that the center previously did not accept an offer from the team last season worth $52 million.

"The $82 million contract is an increase of just $2 million more from what the Cavs were offering in July," added the same report.

After signing the contract with the Cavs, Thompson is now expected to join them as they play against the Chicago Bulls on Oct. 27.

Discussing more details of the deal, ESPN said that the signed seal did not include player or team options.

With an annual earning of $16.4 million, Thompson can be considered to as the sixth-highest-paid power forward in the NBA, the same as Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green

It was added in the ESPN report that this move is a signal that the Cavaliers are gathering their strong team which fought the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals last season.

"It cost them heavily to do so -- the contracts for LeBron James, Kevin Love, Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Thompson total more than $290 million in guaranteed money," added the same report.

But Thompson's contract came as a shock to many especially Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, who is considered to be the best player in his position and who signed a $62-million contract two years ago, as per Cleveland.com.

The same report discussed that when the negotiations for the deal started during summer, Thompson was not present at training camp with King James noting that his absence became a distraction for the team.

However, USA Today reported that the agreement also shows that "Cleveland needs Thompson, and Thompson needs Cleveland."

Last season, Thompson had an average of 8.5 points and 8 rebounds. These numbers even improved during the playoffs when he averaged 9.6 points and 10.8 rebounds. According to USA Today, Thompson helped the team especially when they lost Love due to an injury.

Love earlier expressed that he is ready to come back and play for the team after a season ending injury which prevented him from participating in the playoffs.

A separate Cleveland.com report said that some people did not expect Love to come back to the team when free agency started.

"I'm sitting here laughing because none of you guys believed me when I said I'd be back," Love said.

He added that he is physically prepared for the upcoming season despite his shoulder injury.

"I feel really good, but I'll just basically go off of what the doctors and training staff tell me and go from there. But I'm very eager to get back," Love was quoted by Cleveland.com as saying.