It’s not a good idea to trade an All-Star, especially one that was starting to come into his own at only 25 years of age.
At least, that’s how Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue felt about Kyrie Irving before he was dealt to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas this past summer, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Lue coached Irving and the Cavaliers to two straight NBA Finals, and believed it would be best to ignore the star’s trade demand like the Los Angeles Lakers did when Kobe Bryant asked to be moved in 2007. He had back and forth conversations with the front office, saying to stay put and be firm.
“We wanted to figure out is this real?” Cavs GM Koby Altman said, according to McMenamin. “Is Kyrie someone we might want to bring back and say ‘Hey, look, players have figured it out in the past. You’re going to figure it out. We’re going to still be really good, we’re going to be winning games, so it’s not going to be all awful.’ You know what I mean? So, thinking about the parameters of that, the implications of that was something we were also always debating.”
Besides the package that included Isaiah Thomas, the Cavaliers also received forward Jae Crowder, rookie center Ante Zizic, the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected 2018 first-round pick, and the Miami Heat’s 2020 second-round pick from the Celtics.
“You can’t get better trading a four-time All-Star going into his prime and a 25-year-old point guard going into his prime,” Altman added, “but it gives you a unique opportunity to shuffle the deck and figure out long-term planning, but also figure out what goes around LeBron that’s going to help us win a championship.”
Coach Lue tried to get ahold of Irving, but Irving ignored all his calls and text messages. Lue wanted to let him know that he was soon to be the future of the team and that his time was coming.
Should the Cavs have stayed with Kyrie, or did they make the right decision? Comment below!
