Tristan Thompson is really needed right now.
That's not so bad for the Cavaliers, as Thompson is having a career season. Now, he needs to have the best two weeks of his career.
The Chicago Bulls are in town. It's round two of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Cavs are without injured starting power forward Kevin Love. And the Bulls are big. They like to exchange sharp elbows and dirty looks near the basket. They're good at it.
But Thompson is tall, too. He plays both power forward and center. He's also been coming up big, particularly when the idea is doing all the lunch-pail stuff.
No less than Charles Barkley called Thompson the game's best offensive rebounder. No less than Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens complimented Thompson for his versatility on defense. No less than Thompson's teammates and own coach appreciate all those little things he does so well.
Thompson needs to do all of it, and do all of it more -- and do all of it more than ever.
Now, you don't just replace Love. He can hit 3-pointers and gobble up lots of rebounds, too. Thompson doesn't even shoot threes. That's a good thing. It's not his job. His job is to come off the bench and mix it up underneath, to hustle after offensive boards and frustrate the opposition.
This season, he has done quite well in those areas.
Game 1 against the Bulls is Monday at Quicken Loans Arena. Whether Thompson starts or not, Cavs coach David Blatt isn't really saying. That's fine. It doesn't matter. Off the bench, starting, whatever. Thompson has a firm grasp of what needs done. He knows he's up against gifted Bulls bigs such as Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson.
Those guys play near the basket, too. They get after it, too. Thompson and Cavs centers Timofey Mozgov and Kendrick Perkins had best be ready. If they thought the first round vs. the Celtics could get nasty, well, just wait. The Bulls like to play basketball as if every game is Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao. They get you in their ring and they start slugging.
Noah, Gasol and even Gibson all have playoff experience. Thompson, in his fourth season, is experiencing this for the first time. Lucky for Thompson, title-winning veterans such as LeBron James, Shawn Marion, Perkins and others are by his side and in his ear. That should help him prepare.
This is also a contract season for Thompson. That's a great motivator in any industry. Agents point to times like these in contract negotiations. So do general managers. How much Thompson gets paid this summer is likely to be determined over the next couple weeks, perhaps the next couple months -- depending on how well things go.
But money talk is for July. Winning talk is for now.
Thompson, of course, has been the Cavs' iron man. He's played in every game in his NBA career. That's 310 straight (including the playoffs) entering Monday.
This year, he averaged 8.5 points on 55 percent shooting and 8.0 rebounds in the regular season. As a starter (15 games), those numbers increased to 12.6 points and 9.7 boards. In the playoffs, it's been 7.3 and 6.8, respectively.
Those are all just numbers, though. The Cavs don't need Thompson to be a stat-stuffer. They just need him to be a threat.
He's done that more than ever this year. One game, he made a major impact without even attempting a field goal or free throw. He doesn't really care about his scoring and neither do the Cavs. In that same game, Thompson grabbed 11 rebounds.
That is what Thompson has to offer and it's what the Cavs are seeking. It's what they need, and man, they really need it now.
