During the Cavaliers’ annual Wine and Gold scrimmage game on Monday, star forward LeBron James chose to take a page from his Miami Heat days and bust out his old jersey number. In 2014, James chose to sit for first of back-to-back games in Cleveland before he played at Cintas Center against the Indiana Pacers the following night. “It has not been discussed yet, but I probably won’t play in one of the two games”, James said. Perhaps, but it’s more likely that he’s just having a bit of care-free fun, remembering his past, and paying homage to a former great – or something like that. Thompson comes in after stepping up in the playoffs while Love was injured and he averaged 8.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game last season.
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The most notable aspect of the scrimmage was that Anderson Varejao was back on the floor after missing most of last season with a torn Achilles. “These are the best fans in the world”.
The Wine started Mo Williams, J.R. Smith, James Jones, Timofey Mozgov and James, with Richard Jefferson and Matthew Dellavedova coming off the bench.
It is quite ironic that James said earlier in the off-season that Tristan Thompson is a lock to play for them next season and it looked like the real contract talk will begin next season. According to Cleveland.com, Thompson initially was asking for a max deal, which the Cavs did not want to offer, and he later was reportedly open to signing a shorter deal, but one that would pay him over $15 million per season. The Cavs are hopeful he can return sometime in November or December.
In a scrimmage where the Cavs were without Irving, Kevin Love, Iman Shumpert and Thompson, Cook was 5-of-6 from the field, while knocking going 3-of-4 from 3-point land.
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Where would Tristan Thompson be in negotiations with the Cavaliers today without LeBron James?.
