Alan Frankel
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

The Kyrie Irving Situation

Kyrie Irving has two years left in his contract in Cleveland. With Lebron James’s imminent departure looming after next season , Irvings desire to leave Cleveland is not surprising. From a career/relevance perspective Irving staying in Cleveland next season without Lebron is a disaster scenario. He would be forced to waste a year of his prime for a non contender and would be ineligible for a super-max contract anywhere besides Cleveland. Therefore, it makes sense for Kyrie to ask out of Cleveland now, While he still has two years(this season and next season) on his contract wich makes it far easier for the Cavs to make a trade.

The media has brought up a “Kyrie wants to be the guy” angle which may have some truth to it as well. If you squint hard enough you can already see a team looking to build a Rockets type offense around Kyrie next season. While it’s not impossible to see him in that type of role with the Cavs sans-Lebron, Kyrie would like to move to a contender or large market team to capitalize on being the fulcrum of an organization, like Damien Lillard was able to do two seasons ago.

If Lebron was staying, Kyrie would have to consider trading historical relevance for a larger role. But now, with the Decision 2.0 on the horizon for Lebron, Irvings trade request makes a lot of sense.

    Alan Frankel

    Written by

    I like life. And Football. And Basketball.