My dad has always taught me that good deals work well for everyone. As the Cleveland Cavaliers made their way through and ultimately finished the negotiation with Tristan Thompson and his representatives, I’ve seen some try to identify the winners and losers in the deal. Isn’t it possible that this truly is a good deal for everyone and they’re all winners? That’s the way I look at it. Here’s how everyone came out a winner in my book.

Why the Cleveland Cavaliers front office won

The Cleveland Cavaliers definitely won this negotiation. In some circles it will be thought that the Cavs front office overpaid and that Dan Gilbert’s luxury tax bill is exploding as a result. That ignores just how much the Cavaliers need Tristan Thompson. It also ignores the fact that Thompson is presumed to still be improving at the young age of 24. Signing a young player on a forward-looking basis is a much better use of money than to spend on a guy whose best days are in the rear view mirror. Ask the Cleveland Indians. Speaking of the rear view mirror, another reason the Cavs can be viewed as winners is because of their aging superstar, LeBron James.

James won’t be able to play forever and if you have to really look at the window of opportunity, the Cavaliers are locked up with great complimentary pieces for the next five years. Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and now Tristan Thompson are all set to be free agents in 2020. To a smaller degree, Iman Shumpert is set to be a free agent in 2019. That’s a hell of a baseline for a basketball team that features LeBron James, and it should be good enough to keep him coming back as long as he’s able to keep playing on year-to-year deals.

The Cavaliers also won because they locked up all three of their younger stars in 2015 dollars. With a known inflation period ahead in terms of salary caps, the league will look at the deals signed by these three stars as bargains soon. Obviously this assumes they all continue to play good to great basketball, but that’s the presumption whenever you sign any deal. In a league where Bill Simmons has been dead on over the years when he says “four quarters don’t always make a dollar,” the Cavaliers have three and maybe four dollars (stars) in their pocket. Even if they “overpaid” for one of them, you can’t tell me that the Cavaliers would be better off with two players of lesser value than Tristan Thompson. And the salary cap realities are such that the Cavaliers had no choice to spend the Thompson money elsewhere. It was Thompson or a platter of D-league options. Yes, it cost the Cavaliers a lot of money, but should they achieve their championship goals, it will all be worth it.

The last way the Cavaliers won is because they now have what Chris Grant would infuriatingly refer to as “assets.” Should the Cavaliers need to make a move down the road or change the face of their team for whatever reason, you can’t tell me that Tristan Thompson’s contract won’t be mobile. If the Cavaliers need to trade for someone else’s underperforming player to gain a draft pick there’s always a chance that the Cavs can match that with something like Tristan Thompson’s contract. I wouldn’t look forward to something like that, but my point is that Thompson’s contract isn’t some deadly poison pill that some fans make it out to be.

Why Tristan Thompson won

There are 82 million reasons why Tristan Thompson won this negotiation, but money isn’t the only reason. Thompson has an atypical skillset — albeit a valuable one — and he was compensated handsomely. Even more, just in terms of the negotiation, Thompson played a strong hand with his agents and didn’t really feel any ill effects from the tactics.

Thompson didn’t have to play a year on the much smaller qualifying offer. He gets to continue to play in a very good situation with LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving with little to no pressure when it comes to “carrying” a team. To be a complimentary player — comfortable with the role you’ve been given — and compensated like an All-Star is about as perfect a situation for any professional athlete.

Why Rich Paul won

Out of all the stakeholders in this negotiation, I’ve heard Rich Paul described as the loser, but I’m not buying it. Paul, Thompson’s agent, did play a strong hand and appeared poised to play hardball for the full $94 million max-level deal. He threatened to sign the qualifying offer and then guide Tristan Thompson out of Cleveland at the conclusion of that one-year deal. In the end, all that posturing and bulldogging got him just an extra $2 million for a pretty public negotiation and an ugly holdout that risked his client’s reputation with fans. That’s a really short-term view of the situation, however.

In the long term, Rich Paul will look pretty good. He and his agency took an atypically valuable player, whose metrics don’t always show up easily in a box score, and got him $16.4 million on average per season. He also kept a player in a situation that he wanted to be in playing with LeBron James for the foreseeable future. And remember: Paul and Thompson turned down a four-year, $52 million offer back in January. I have yet to read the book where getting an additional $30 million equates to a loss. Regardless of how they got there, it’s hard to look at the results in terms of compensation for Tristan Thompson and think that it will be anything other than a positive note on the Klutch Sports Group Wikipedia page.

Why Cavalier fans won

Despite going through the ups and downs of this negotiation, this offseason was a really good one for Cavs fans. Kevin Love defied the rumor mongers and signed with the Cavaliers right away. Kyrie Irving is starting to regain his health. The Cavaliers brought back J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert, the former on less money than his initial offer. Hell, I keep forgetting that the Cavaliers got Richard Jefferson despite the fact that he dunked his arrival in everyone’s faces.

Tristan Thompson signing without missing any regular season action is a satisfying finish to the offseason for Cavaliers. The team will have some adversity and it’s going to be a long regular season, but the Cavs come back with all their pieces, a year of experience back in the spotlight, and a better understanding of the task of getting to the playoffs to make a run. Even though the Cavs fans haven’t won anything yet, they too are winners in the Tristan Thompson negotiation.

As I said in the opening, that’s the true sign that this was a good deal for everyone. Everyone won.