5 takeaways from the Kyrie Irving — Isaiah Thomas trade

Wrote about the Kyrie trade. An excerpt:

Both Irving and Thomas are almost entirely one-way contributors. Kyrie has shown the ability to ratchet up his defensive intensity from time to time, but he’s never been anywhere near consistent enough with that effort for it to truly matter over the course of a season. He’s the rare elite-level player that appears to be far more valuable within smaller samples than he is over larger ones. His ability to get off any shot he wants from anywhere, at any time, is one of the most valuable skills in the NBA on a single-possession basis. So is his ability to make shots that appear on the surface to be impossible. (There may not be anybody in the NBA better in that specific arena.) But there are only so many of those possessions over the course of a season; there are far more possessions that are run-of-the-mill, and thus don’t necessarily allow that singular talent to shine through.

And while that talent seems singular, Thomas showed last season that he’s got a little bit of the same kind of magic. Irving’s brand of virtuosity might be a bit more reliable or a bit more consistent, but if all you’re looking for is a jitterbug-style point guard that can create any shot out of thing air, well, Thomas will do in a pinch.

Of course, Irving is three years younger, six inches taller, eight pounds heavier, and considerably stronger than Thomas, and thus seems less likely to decline — and decline quickly — anytime soon. He is also under team control for both 2017–18 and 2018–19, meaning he provides an extra season’s worth of value to the Celtics, who almost certainly didn’t want to have to pay Thomas a maximum contract next offseason. Players Isaiah’s size don’t tend to fare well once they hit their 30s, and he was going to be 29 when he hit unrestricted free agency next offseason. He was also going to be the Celtics’ only realistic “point guard of the near future” option, though, so they would have been somewhat over a barrel in terms of having to pay him a relatively sizable contact. Now, they’ve gained an extra year to make their decision.

Read the full story at The Step Back.