When a team has a potential franchise face that shows signs of becoming a nuisance later on, it might be wise to unload the player while his value is still high, even though the exchange is with a rival.
That’s what exactly the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics did.
See also: Is Kyrie Irving’s trade request brilliant or insane?
Kyrie Irving burned the Cleveland bridges when he demanded a trade out of the team last July, forcing the Cavs to reassess their steps toward including him in their future line-up.
Lost in the shuffle is Isaiah Thomas’ yapping about the Celtics’ bringing out of a brinks truck to pay him a max deal, seemingly forgetting that he is coming off a hip injury during the regular season that is yet to go away and his lack of size as an inherent limitation that could prevent the Celtics from building a truly championship contender should they spend a big chunk of their salary cap on him.
With these dark clouds looming, the Cavs and the Celtics did the next best thing, get rid of the potential problem and get back something as valuable along the way.
The Cavs and the Celtics agreed last August 23 to a trade sending Irving to the Celtics in exchange of Thomas, Jae Crowder, rookie center Ante Zizic and Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round pick to Cleveland.
The blockbuster trade swapping the first draft pick and the last draft pick, no. 60 overall, of the 2011 NBA rookie draft seems to benefit both teams this early.
Cleveland got out of the Kyrie Irving trade request mess better than results of other trades in similar circumstances. They got an All-NBA point guard whose numbers are similar to Irving and who got a scoring mentality to perfectly mesh with Lebron James’ being a distributor.
They got an added bonus in a quality wing defender who is on a great contract.
If everything else fails, they acquired the 2018 Brooklyn first round pick to anchor their rebuild should James leaves town again and they decide to tear it down. They could even bring Thomas back, probably on a deal less than the max.
Boston, on the other hand, somewhat reduced their defensive liability at the point guard position with the swap as Irving is a taller, slightly better defender and a better closer.
They settled down with the Irving, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown/Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris and Al Horford probable starting five going forward with the remaining of the last two years’ No. 3 overall draft selections and Marcus Smart coming off the bench.
Boston further enhanced a great summer job in securing the present and the future of the franchise with this deal. They have two years to convince Irving that his partnership with Hayward could be the face of the franchise for a long time.
The Irving deal should also increase options for the club as it would surely attract potential free agents to consider Boston a destination for chasing championships.
For what it’s worth, the East became more exciting to watch because of this boosted Celtics-Cavs rivalry as both teams further enhance their chances to claim the Eastern conference crown.
They are set to face on opening night, October 17 at Cleveland. They will meet again twice in Boston, one on January 3 and another on February 11, 2018 where the Celtics intend to hang Paul Pierce’s Jersey to the rafters.
All dates as in United States time.
By: ARMANDO M. BOLISLIS
