• March 19, 2024

Thoughts On The Kyrie Irving/Isaiah Thomas Trade

CLEVELAND, OH – FEBRUARY 29: Kyrie Irving #2 of the Cleveland Cavaliers reacts on the court during the first half against the Indiana Pacers at Quicken Loans Arena on February 29, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory copyright notice. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

On Tuesday night, a bombshell rocked the NBA when the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics announced a major trade that swapped star guards Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas along with several other key parts.

Along with Thomas, Cleveland also picks up Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the rights to the first-round pick of the Brooklyn Nets in 2018. Boston simply gets Irving.

The trade has all kinds of ramifications for the Sixers and the rest of the Eastern Conference.

For the Cavaliers, this is a potentially franchise-saving deal. Before this deal, I completely believed that LeBron James was going to bolt Cleveland once he hit free agency next year. The Cavs were starting to have the feel of a sinking ship, with a capped-out roster stuck with an underwhelming Kevin Love and a lack of future assets, with a disgruntled Kyrie Irving that was trying to force his way out of town.

Now, the Cavaliers managed to more than adequately replace Irving with a comparable player in Thomas, but also upgraded their rotation by adding a solid young forward in Crowder to their mix.

But the best part of this deal for the Cavs is landing the Nets pick in 2018. Thanks to Billy King, Brooklyn is locked-in to be one of the worst teams in the NBA for years to come, and that pick will almost certainly be a top-three pick in the lottery next year again. The pick gives Cleveland a valuable tool to either help entice LeBron to stay, whether they use the pick to draft a top prospect, or use it in a deal to acquire another veteran, but even if James does leave them high and dry, the franchise is no longer completely screwed, as they’d still have Thomas, Love, Crowder, and the Nets pick to build around.

The Celtics on the other hand, lose this trade by a mile. If I’m a Boston fan, I’m furious about how this offseason has gone down. The Celtics won the top pick in the draft, only to trade away the rights to Markelle Fultz for the Sixers and didn’t even manage to come away with the complete rights to either the Laker pick in 2018 or the Kings’ pick in 2019.

And now, Danny Ainge has made a trade that strips the team of assets, and doesn’t make the Celtics a better team than they were before. Irving and Thomas are players with very comparable skillsets. Maybe Irving has the higher ceiling, but he’s also a guy that’s struggled to stay healthy throughout his career, and was never able to get the Cavs to so much as a .500 record before James came back to town. Losing a solid guy like Crowder only hurts the team’s depth, and throwing away next year’s Brooklyn pick doesn’t make a lick of sense.

If Ainge had stood pat and kept the Celtics as they were previously constructed, they probably would have won the East. As mentioned previously, before this trade, the Cavs were a team in turmoil. With Irving demanding to get out, and the questions about James’ commitment to the franchise after this season, the distractions surrounding Cleveland could easily have caused that team to implode into themselves, leaving the already-powerful Celtics to seize the conference.

Even if the Cavs found another taker for Irving, I can’t imagine what team would be able to come close to matching the package that the Celtics just paid. Few teams have the rights to a pick as valuable as the Nets’ pick to offer.

Instead, Ainge has gone and kindly removed Cleveland’s biggest distraction from the picture, and replaced it by giving the team newfound hope with Thomas and Crowder coming to provide fresh blood and upgrade the roster this year, while also allowing the franchise to look to next year’s Brooklyn pick as a beacon of hope as well.

Its one of the most painfully shortsighted trades I’ve ever seen.

 

Denny Basens

Read Previous

Notes From The Phillies’ 7-4 Loss To Miami

Read Next

Notes From The Phillies’ 8-0 Win Over Miami

0 0 votes
Article Rating
29 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
zilents44
zilents44
August 23, 2017 12:45 am

My thoughts are Cavs just owned Danny ainge in this trade. Kylie and Thomas both play horrible d, Kylie is younger I think Thomas is a better pg…..now including a top 3 pick and jae Crowder, geez Celtics just lost two great defenders this year in Bradley and jae Crowder, that team has too much turnover….i think Celts will struggle this year….trader Danny lost this one

mhenski
mhenski
August 23, 2017 8:55 am

Love this trade for both sides

To me crowder is an average roll player and Boston flush with wings so they didn’t need him. Cavs bench gets better with him but not a huge impact either way. Imo (mostly everyone disagrees with me) kyrie is wayyyyyy better than isiaah. isiah has hip issues now (not good) and Boston didn’t wanna give him a max (I wonder why). Kyrie has the offensive talent to be the best offensive player in the league. He dominated while Lebron controlled the ball like 70% of the time. Now he gonna have the ball every time Boston go up the court and he gonna be sick. Prob lead league in scoring to boot.

As a sixers fan I’m not happy about seeing kyrie in Boston the next 10 years. Hopefully jealous Lebron wants revenge and signs here next year.

zilents44
zilents44
August 23, 2017 12:22 pm
Reply to  mhenski

Your take is pretty bad henski, Kylie whole career he has been losing until LeBron showed up, his defense is atrocious, he’s a volume scorer and terrible facilitator, can’t win playing melo iso ball, I thought you followed basketball henski

mhenski
mhenski
August 23, 2017 1:38 pm
Reply to  zilents44

hes 25 now (24 when the reg season ended) . his “whole career” pre lebron was when he was 19, 20 & 21. Not too many teenage and 21 year olds are winning with a pile of dogshit starting with them bro

his D is putrid no doubt but I question whether hes a good facilitator or not. that was lebrons job not him. the jury out on that imo; now he can do all the facilitating to gordon hey, big al, cliffs fake son and tatum. he scores at will on anyone anywhere.

mhenski
mhenski
August 23, 2017 2:54 pm
Reply to  mhenski

Got Lebron now tweeting #fillay. Wtf ? He coming next year?

zilents44
zilents44
August 23, 2017 3:43 pm
Reply to  mhenski

He’s had plenty time to be a facilitator he’s never been that and I don’t think he can, he used iso ball almost double the rate of Isaiah thomas

bugsyhawk
bugsyhawk
August 23, 2017 4:01 pm
Reply to  zilents44

Yet he had just as many assists as Thomas did. Neither one of these guys is a passing PG.

zilents44
zilents44
August 23, 2017 4:11 pm
Reply to  bugsyhawk

You guys are killing me yes they did but if you watched the games they played like I did all year Thomas was the better facilitator, it’s Kylie is so high volume his assist are high just with that and a lot of Thomas was due to Boston being such a passing team that on his assist the player would pass instead of shoot or just miss the shoot more often

mhenski
mhenski
August 23, 2017 4:48 pm
Reply to  zilents44

That ball was alwAys in Lebrons hands. Oppurtinies will be different now for kyrie. He’s not a teenager no more. We gonna find out if he a winner although haters will say it was Gordon if they win

haveacigar
haveacigar
August 23, 2017 9:20 am

Ben Simmons looks all world in Australian YMCA pick up game– Looks like paulmans Boone mens league

CT
CT
August 23, 2017 5:57 pm

Sixers will beat Boston in the playoffs this year in game 7.

We will lose to Cleveland in 5-6 games

Trust the process!!!! We are coming!!!

mhenski
mhenski
August 23, 2017 9:04 pm

Ryhs dinger Hoskins

haveacigar
haveacigar
August 24, 2017 7:58 am
Reply to  mhenski

Well they need a couple pitchers to develop…. I’m expecting 103 losses this year and 85 wins next.

mhenski
mhenski
August 24, 2017 12:36 pm
Reply to  haveacigar

gimme the under for a million

haveacigar
haveacigar
August 24, 2017 2:32 pm

Well I will take a look at vegas and take the over…play it against your million. They are going in the right direction… you are me optimst sixers and their summer shirtless highlights against you, me and Paul man

mhenski
mhenski
August 24, 2017 4:33 pm

Hoskins with another bomb and 3rbis. Guy loves smashing dingers

haveacigar
haveacigar
August 24, 2017 5:08 pm
Reply to  mhenski

We have a few keepers… thank you RAJ… dumb ass critics be damned

Eaglehaslanded
Eaglehaslanded
August 24, 2017 7:17 pm

Wentz with a 50 yard bomb TD to Torrey Smith…beautiful airstrike

daggolden
daggolden
August 24, 2017 7:46 pm

Vanilla offense again lol. 3 yards and a cloud of dust.

Eaglehaslanded
Eaglehaslanded
August 24, 2017 7:53 pm
Reply to  daggolden

50 yard td pass…lol…yeah 3 yards and a cloud of dust

daggolden
daggolden
August 24, 2017 7:48 pm

Wentz 6 foot 10 and continues to get balls batted down

mhenski
mhenski
August 24, 2017 7:50 pm
Reply to  daggolden

Lmfao that vanilla shits nice.

Torrey making plays

Ertz making plays

Shon Makin plays

Smallwood looking explosive

Blount is garbage

Eaglehaslanded
Eaglehaslanded
August 24, 2017 7:52 pm
Reply to  daggolden

uhh perhaps you did not see the DT get penetration to bat the ball down…that should not happen

haveacigar
haveacigar
August 24, 2017 7:56 pm

The trade Kelce crowd should watch the game tape… hilarious fools

mhenski
mhenski
August 24, 2017 8:10 pm
Reply to  haveacigar

It’s preseason it doesn’t matter

It’s vanilla it doesn’t matter

Then poof it all matters lol

Eaglehaslanded
Eaglehaslanded
August 24, 2017 8:20 pm
Reply to  mhenski

3rd preseason game is more so the dress rehearsal for the reg season. Starters will not play next week so this game is the one that matters during preseason.

haveacigar
haveacigar
August 24, 2017 8:25 pm
Reply to  mhenski

Ha last week it was why are they running sideways, the sky is falling… this week a detailed look at the guy you want to trade is invalid…

Eaglehaslanded
Eaglehaslanded
August 24, 2017 10:44 pm

Eagles offense began to open it up starting off with a 50 yard pass for a TD from Wentz to Torrey Smith..3 yards and a cloud of dust..ctfu…clueless!
Wentz with a 20 yard pass to Jeffery to set up 15 yard TD pass to Jeffery more 3 yards and a cloud of dust..lmao.

Wentz 6-10 129 yards 2 TDs 1 int off a batted pass (more on Lane Johnson for allowing d linemen to get in the passing lane) 104.5 PR

Defense looked good even though Darby gave up a couple of big plays. D line will get major pressure on QB’s this year..Vinny Curry sighting.

Special Teams needs some work!

O line needs work, Lane Johnson and Kelce was pushed back into the pocket a lot tonight. Wentz under lots of pressure tonight..hit to many times.

zilents44
zilents44
August 25, 2017 2:10 am

Kelce is so dam weak gets punished with interior pressure