Kyrie, Round Objects, and the NBA at Large.

Samson Folk
Jul 22, 2017 · 7 min read

Friday, June 21st, 2017. The news broke that Kyrie Irving was looking for a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Claiming he had no desire to play alongside LeBron James any longer.

I know this seems like a very perplexing move. Kyrie seemingly gets to play the type of basketball that best showcases his talents in Cleveland (ISO heavy, Catch and Shoot 3's). He is eligible for the NBA’s super max contract in 3 years, and he is part of one of the NBA’s elite teams.

For all of the things Kyrie could hope to achieve without LeBron, he may be hitching his carriage to the wrong horse here. To be clear, Kyrie is hitching himself… erm, to himself. While Kyrie is one of the leagues most popular players, with his slick floor game, show-stopping handles, and his limitless ability to hit jump shots. He may not understand himself completely. Kyrie Irving gets all of those things as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he gets to do it while having little to no responsibilities on defence, and a team that can sleep walk to the finals. Kyrie can build his resume of clutch shots, and accolades next to Lebron until the sad day when ‘King James’ finally sails into the sunset. Kyrie could almost assuredly take over from there and have the De Facto “reigns to the franchise”.

Westbrook averaged a triple-double for the year, led the league in points, won the MVP, and the Thunder were one of the NBA’s elite defenses. They finished 6th in the Western Conference (2017).

Anthony Davis put up the 12th highest PER (30.81) of all time, and was a finalist for Defensive player of the year. The Pelicans finished 8th in the Western Conference (2015).

DeMarcus Cousins averaged 26.9/11.5/3.3/1.6/1.4 The Kings finished 10th in the Western Conference (2015). DeMarcus Cousins averaged 27/11/4.6/1.4/1.3 between the Kings and the Pelicans, where he joined another All-NBA player in Anthony Davis. The Kings finished 12th, the Pelicans finished 10th (2017).

The point I’m trying to make is that believe it or not, it’s really tough to win in the NBA. Don’t let some old hoops head tell you the league is soft and nobody tries anymore. The league is so full of talent, that you have guys creating historical precedent with their play, and they’re barely sneaking into the playoffs.

Kyrie is trying to walk away from the surest thing there has been in this league since Bill Russell. There are 3 certainties in life, death, taxes, and LeBron James winning the Eastern Conference.

Kyrie Picks His Favourites

Kyrie listed 4 teams that he would like to be traded to, the Knicks, the Timberwolves, the Heat, and the Spurs. Let’s take a look at each possibility.

Timberwolves

I wanted to start with the Wolves because it seems the least likely scenario to me. From what I can gather, Kyrie is drawn to the Wolves because he has a strong desire to play with Jimmy Butler. Now because the Kyrie news broke so late, the Wolves went ahead and signed Jeff Teague, and Taj Gibson. Now because they signed those two, they can’t trade their contracts for awhile, that’s a problem. Outside of those players you have guys like Wiggins, KAT, and Butler who it wouldn’t make sense for the Wolves to trade away as they are a piece of the core going forward. So what we’re left with is Gorgui Dieng and his $14,112,360 per year contract, Cole Aldrich $7,300,000 per, as anything close to viable in a trade, and nothing the Cavaliers would even consider.

Sorry Wolves fans, but it doesn’t look like this has a distinct chance of happening.

Heat

No state tax, great weather, night life, DJ Khaled music video opportunities, and Pat Riley’s championship pedigree. Kyrie obviously decided Miami was one of the places he’d like to go, and I believe at least 3 of the things I highlighted would be of merit to him.

Things can get a little more interesting with Miami in who they could trade back to Cleveland, but I really don’t know why Cleveland would entertain any of them. Not to mention if Kyrie went to Miami, he would be united with his much maligned running mate of old, Dion Waiters.

Oh you wanted another angle? Okay:

I really don’t see this one happening either, but god would it be funny. Anything to get more people on Waiters Island.

Spurs

This seems like the dream scenario for Kyrie. He gets to walk into the playoffs again, he can snooze on defense, and he’ll get plenty of ISO opportunities (I don’t care about the Spurs system, Kawhi had tons of ISO plays last year, of Pop sees it working he won’t stop it). In addition to all that, Coach Pop will no doubt find Kyrie a litany of advantageous matchups to attack in the Spurs offense.

The thing that makes this tough is that the Spurs just signed Patty Mills to big money (4 years, $50,000,000) and they don’t have much in the way of contracts to throw back at the Cavs. The only thing I could see happening is something like a 3 team deal including the Suns where Bledsoe goes to Cleveland, Aldridge goes to Phoenix, and Kyrie goes to San Antonio. Not to mention Phoenix probably collecting a draft pick or two to incentivize them, considering Aldridge doesn’t overly fit with their youth movement centred around Devin Booker and Marquesse Chriss.

Knicks

So this one seems like it has the best chance of happening. Carmelo Anthony has a no trade clause, and he said he would only waive it for two teams, the Houston Rockets, and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

As luck would have it, Kyrie has is eyes set on Madison Square Garden as a new home for his flashy handle and infectious smile. How fortuitous this all really is. The catch is that Kyrie brings far more to the table than ‘Melo’ both as a player, and a marketing tool.

I’m sure the Cavs would have no problem receiving Carmelo, but I’m sure they had designs of sending Kevin Love to New York as opposed to their incredibly talented point guard.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the Knicks got him, but don’t rule out a 3 team trade where one of the aforementioned teams does a bit of cap aerobics to snatch Kyrie away.

In summation, I don’t blame Kyrie for wanting his own team. I really would urge him to exercise patience though, as he would seemingly only benefit from playing with LeBron as long as he possible. In today’s NBA I guess I should just be thankful he’s not trying to join the Rockets or the Warriors. Kyrie wants to have his own team, he wants to carve his own path as a winner and prove himself, that’s not so bad.

A quick reminder, Kyrie is far and away the NBA’s best ISO player:

A fine way to end this would be a quote from Kyrie, shortly after the NBA Finals on his good friend and mentor LeBron:

“You can’t skip any steps. And that was one thing that I came to understand, because as a young player you want everything to happen right now. And Bron’s been in this league for a while now, and he’s seen every which way from on the court, to off the court, to dealing with some of you guys, to dealing with the whole world of just choosing a side. Whether you want to believe in him or not, he’s still coming.

And that’s the type of guy that I want to be with every single time I’m going to war, because I know what to expect, and you stand your ground, too, with a leader like that. You don’t want to take a step back. You love to the front line with a guy like that, and you want to bring your game up to another level.

That’s what I’m going to continue to do, because I know that if we continue with one another and keep utilizing one another, man, the sky’s the limit. So, I’ve learned a lot and I will continue to, and I couldn’t be more proud of that guy. He left it all out there on the floor, and to average a triple-double in the freaking Finals, man, add that to the LeBron long list that everyone keeps forgetting.”

I really liked the tandem of Kyrie and Bron, but hey, all good things come to an end.

If you liked this you can follow me on twitter @samfolkk or you can check out more of my work at collabhouse.ca/articles and feel free to listen to the podcast I co-host called “Deep Thoughts With Mascots” and you can find that on iTunes.

Have a blessed day y’all.

Samson Folk

Written by

Introspect, then come correct. Breaking down the NBA, dabbling in the arts.

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