Midnight Deadline Passes Without Tristan Thompson Signing Cavs Qualifying Offer

The clock has struck midnight, and for the Cavaliers and forward Tristan Thompson, the standstill continues.

With the strike of midnight, Thompson became an official holdout for the Cavs, as it was his last chance to sign his one-year qualifying offer of $6.8 million dollars.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, Cavaliers GM David Griffin told NBA TV that he felt he would see Thompson in camp on Friday, before he became an official holdout.

“We fully expect (Friday) he’ll be here in some form or fashion and we’re excited to get going,” Griffin said.

“We’re hopeful that he wants to move forward with his teammates in the same way we want to have Tristan here. If we can come to some agreement we will.”

The options are still very limited for Thompson at this point. Since now the qualifying offer has passed, he can still sign an offer sheet with any team until March 1st or re-sign with Cleveland at any point.

As far as if the forward sits out, the Cavaliers still hold the cards, as they can extend him a new qualifying offer next summer and make him a restricted free agent all over again.

Tristan Thompson failed to pick up the Cavs' $6.8 million qualifying offer by the 11:59 p.m. ET deadline per league source.

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 2, 2015