Cavs make it official: Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova are restricted free agents

Free agency starts at midnight, and the Cavs kept three of their youngest players from being unrestricted through the process. The Cleveland Cavaliers announced Tuesday afternoon that they will make Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, and Matthew Dellavedova restricted free agents by giving them qualifying offers.

The three players now have three options. They can accept the one year qualifying offers, they can negotiate and sign a contract with another team, or they can negotiate and sign a longer deal with the Cavs. If any of the three choose the second option and sign with another team, the Cavs will have the ability to match the offer and bring them back to Cleveland.

From the Cavs:

The Cleveland Cavaliers have extended qualifying offers to guard Matthew Dellavedova, guard Iman Shumpert and forward/center Tristan Thompson, Cavaliers General Manager David Griffin announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts.

By extending qualifying offers, the Cavaliers will have a right of first refusal for these players should they receive an offer sheet from another team.

Thompson's qualifying offer is for $7.15 million, Shumpert's for $3.9, and Dellavedova's for $1.15. It's clear that Thompson and Shumpert will get offered quite a bit more than their qualifying offer would suggest, which is mostly a good thing: to a certain extent, it means they've justified or exceeded the expectations of where they were drafted. Delly is a bit more up in the air. It's hard to say how much teams will value him. It wouldn't surprise me if he got a nice raise as well.