Kyrie Irving’s trade request did not prevent some Cleveland Cavaliers players from hoping he’d still stick around.
The actual trade should, though. (Sorry.)
From ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin:
As the Cavs sat on Irving’s trade request for more than six weeks, the stalemate led some around the league to wonder if Cleveland were willing to enter into the 2017-18 season with the point guard still on the roster, hoping to mend fences. After all, one of Irving’s mentors, Kobe Bryant, requested a trade in the summer of 2007, only to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers and tack on two more championships and three more NBA Finals appearances. Multiple Cavs players told ESPN that they hoped Irving would remain on the team, believing they could work out their differences like a family and have another crack at beating the Warriors together.
In recent weeks, that idea became unrealistic, as Irving let it be known that he would rather not report to training camp than begin another season with Cleveland, sources told ESPN.
Other Cavaliers players clearly couldn’t know what they would get for Irving, so this stance is understandable, even if it’s a little too whimsical. Then again, the 25-year-old point guard had been on the fence before, contemplating a future independent of LeBron James. Maybe his running mates thought this, too, would pass.
Well, it didn’t. His request to get out of Cleveland before training camp is a big deal. It proves he wasn’t equivocating on his position, but rather, he was fully committed to playing elsewhere.
Relationships exist beyond the hardwood, so his departure is going to sting anyone he was close with. But the Cavaliers did well to get Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick. If Thomas is healthy, there’s a chance they are a better team for this trade. He is closer to a lateral offensive move from Irving than most care to admit, and he comes accompanied with Crowder, the exact kind of wing the Cavaliers have needed during the latest James era.
