Cavaliers help out future with Irving trade
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
The Cleveland Cavaliers pulled it off. The franchise that has appeared in the last three NBA Finals had a proverbial gun held to its head when superstar point guard Kyrie Irving requested a trade earlier this summer. The Cavs had two options once Irving made his request known: keep him on the team and force him to play out the remaining two years on his contract (excluding his 2019-20 player option) in Cleveland, or trade him to another team and hope to get something of value in return. Tuesday evening, the Cavs executed the latter.
The Cavs were stuck. They knew they had to ship Irving out of town to avoid the inevitable dysfunction that would have come if Irving stayed in wine and gold for the upcoming season. The problem was that the other 29 teams in the league knew the Cavs had to get a deal done for Irving before the season starts, too. Another issue the Cavs faced was a list Irving reportedly put together of his desired destinations (Miami, Minnesota, San Antonio, New York).
Nevertheless, the Cavs overcame all the hurdles to an Irving trade and executed a blockbuster deal that included the popular point guard. Tuesday evening, the Cavs announced that they had traded Irving to the Boston Celtics for two-time All-Star Isaiah Thomas, versatile forward Jae Crowder and center Ante Zizic. Considering Thomas also finished fifth just behind LeBron James in MVP voting last season, and that Crowder is a very valuable addition, one could surmise that the Cavs at least received equal value for Irving. But the Cavs didn’t only receive players in the deal.
Boston also sent the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 unprotected first-round pick to the Cavs, which has the chance to turn into a top 3 pick in next year’s NBA Draft. How did Cavs general manager Koby Altman pull this off?
“This trade needed to include both players and assets that we felt strongly could help us continue to compete for championships and we believe it does,” Altman said in a press release. “We look forward to Isaiah, Jae and Ante joining us and also felt that the unprotected first-round pick in the deal was very important for us and our future as well.”
Thomas finished third in the NBA in scoring last season (28.9 ppg) and is one of the most dynamic players in the league, but there are causes for concern. First, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent after the season and will be looking for a big deal. Second, to get that big deal, he’ll have to produce near the level he has over the last two seasons. Whether he can do that is unknown since he’ll be playing with the best player in the world, and the fact that the status of his hip is also unknown.
A hip injury forced Thomas to miss the final three games of the Eastern Conference Finals against Cleveland last season. An argument could be made, however, that Thomas could have played if his team wasn’t in the process of being thoroughly thrashed by the Cavs in the series.
One of the more intriguing storylines is that Irving was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, while Thomas was the very last pick in that draft. After that draft took place, nobody could have imagined that the first player picked would eventually be traded for the last player selected.
Irving reportedly wanted to lead his own team, and he’ll now have the chance to do just that for the foreseeable future in Boston. Meanwhile, the Cavs are still the favorite to reach a fourth consecutive NBA Finals, and with the acquisitions they made this summer (Thomas, Crowder, Derrick Rose), they may have a better chance than last season to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy.
POSTED 08/23/2017 12:10
Lake County Sentinel
