KYRIE TRADE REACTION
As many of you know two top 7 PGs were traded a few days ago.
Isaiah Thomas; the NBA’s third leading scorer last season, Jae Crowder, rookie Ante Zizic, and Brooklyn’s 2018 Unprotected First Round Pick were shipped to Cleveland from Boston in exchange for star guard Kyrie Irving.

In his 6 years as a member of the Cavs, Kyrie established himself as one of the league’s premier Point Guards. Regardless of how bad he was on defense, Kyrie Irving was feared around the league due to the variety of skills he had on the offensive end. He displayed that he had “ice in his veins”. He showed us that his handles were as good as Allen Iverson’s. Last season he even became the second player in history to average 25+ PPG playing next to LeBron James. On the other end, Isaiah Thomas had a completely different road to stardom. It is pretty lengthy to explain, so I will sum it up for you in a sentence. Thomas was doubted time and time again. His basketball abilites are not far behind Kyrie’s though. He can score at will (he averaged 29 points per game last year) and he can make plays all while being 5'9. It will be interesting to see how Thomas performs alongside another star. As for the other assets in this trade, Jae Crowder is a great 3ND guy that you would want as a 6th or 7th man on a championship team. Ante Zizic is a rookie big man that has tremendous upside. With all this said, the big bucks in this trade was this 2018 Nets pick. Next year, Brooklyn will have D’Angelo Russell; a young scorer, 3 young wings with decent potential, bad contracts, and trash. They will be experimenting all year long, and I will be impressed if Kenny Atkinson’s squad can win over 25 games this year. Basically, what I am saying is that Cleveland will most likely be getting a top 5 pick that could be used in a future trade which obtains them a star or be used to pick them a future star.
Why I think Cleveland wins the trade:
If I was Cleveland I would be thrilled with the package I got back. Firstly, this trade helps Cleveland in the “win now” mode. They have Isaiah, LBJ, and Kevin Love. Tristan Thompson will protect the rim and grab rebounds, and then you have a plethora of role players that will help you off the bench with all aspects of the game. This team could seriously compete with the Warriors. This doesn’t put them over the top but it definitely gives them a better chance at winning. If LeBron does get overpowered, then there is a high chance that he will become LeGone James. It is widely known that James is frustrated with the situation in Cleveland, and after losing 3 times to the same team he might be too fed up with Dan Gilbert. Isaiah is in a contract year, and Koby Altman will not pay someone max money to lead the Cavs to a sub-par record. Now, you may be thinking “Cleveland just lost their two best players, how is this good for them?”. Well, the aforementioned Brooklyn pick will come in hand. They will be able to snag a five star recruit in the 2018 Draft, trade Kevin Love for a younger asset and then start a rebuild built around those two players. They get rid of all their bad contracts within a season or two, and by the summer of 2020, Cleveland will be set to make a splurge in free agency with all the cap space in the world. However, on Boston’s side there is really no difference. You didn’t acquire LeBron, you acquired Kyrie. He might be really good, but the production Isaiah gave you is not that much less than the production Kyrie will give you. They still aren’t good enough to beat Cleveland even with the swap of PGs and that means they aren’t good enough to beat Golden State either. The worst part about this trade is that, next season Boston cannot improve their roster too drastically. The Celtics lost their top asset (2018 Nets Pick), and many of the future assets they have are completely uncertain. De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield might become a stellar backcourt, and their 2019 Kings pick has no value. The Clippers still have DJ and Blake. Their Lottery Protected pick from LAC might also become worthless. We don’t know what moves Memphis might make before the 2019 Draft. Therefore, that pick they have could also become worthless. There are just a lot of questions regarding future assets. Questions that right now cannot be answered. In terms of free agency, they are tied up in Kyrie’s 19M, Gordon Hayward’s 32M, and Al Horford’s 28M. The cap space they have will not be enough to land a big name free agent in the summer of 2018. The bottom line is that once again the Celtics 2018–19 roster will not be good enough to compete. It would take a miracle for Danny Ainge to make a trade or signing that puts them over the top.
To conclude, by the summer of 2019 the Celtics will be fresh off of 9 straight seasons of missing the NBA Finals and Kyrie will likely be gone after two years wearing the green and gold. Meanwhile, Cleveland will either have a championship contender on their hands, or a very young team that’s firepower could attract star free agents in the future.