Former Lakers Center And LeBron James Friend Returns Home

Could this be his final NBA destination?

Big man Tristan Thompson, who most recently signed on with your Los Angeles Lakers on the last day of the 2023 regular season to be a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency playoff addition, is working on the finishing touches of a new deal to return to the team that drafted him, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Thompson's agent Rich Paul informs Shams Charania of The Athletic of the 6'9" power forward/center's new deal.

Cleveland drafted Thompson with the fourth pick out of the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. It proved to be an eventful 2011 draft that also landed them future All-NBA point guard Kyrie Irving out of Duke. Those two players would prove to be critical pieces of the club's eventual championship core, filled out by now-Lakers All-Star LeBron James, now-Heat role player Kevin Love JR Smith and others.

The Cavs with Thompson either starting or playing big minutes off the bench would go on to reach four straight NBA Finals from 2015-18, winning in 2016. 

Now 32, the Hidden Hills resident latched on with LA as a deep-bench frontcourt option for what wound up being a spirited underdog run to the Western Conference Finals. Thompson was mostly used in blowouts until a 113-111 Game 4 loss to the Denver Nuggets, when Darvin Ham employed him as a backup center. Across 9:41 of meaningful minutes, Thompson scored four points on 2-of-4 shooting from the floor and pulled down one rebound while providing some solid interior defense.

Thompson, a friend of James' since their Cavaliers days together, joined the Lakers after having played for no one during the 2022-23 regular season. Once with the Lakers, he helped contribute locker room leadership and accountability for a young LA team, most of whom hadn't enjoyed significant postseason success yet. He holds career averages of nine points on 51.9% shooting and 8.4 boards across 730 regular season games, and while he won't average anywhere near that with a deep Cleveland team this season, it's nice to see him return with his signature NBA franchise. Especially since there weren't going to be any minutes for him in this revamped 2023-24 LA frontcourt.

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