Farewell Kyrie Irving

[jbk1234]

So let's start with the good: Kyrie is probably the second best pure scorer (behind only LBJ) to ever wear a Cavs uniform. His handle is elite. His ability to finish for a guard is elite. His three point shooting is really good. He's fearless. For the most part, he's clutch. Watching him take it into the heart of the Warriors defense like a boss over the last two Finals was amazing. It reminded me of the Ali quote: *It ain't bragging if you can do it.* Kyrie's performance in the Finals will be one of my better Cleveland sports memories until I'm watching from the hereafter.

The bad: Everything else. I mean everything. Kyrie is an awful PNR defender. Really awful. But he can play passable defense in general when he expends energy. He almost never does so. How many times did opposing PGs, whatever their skill level, have great games against Kyrie over the course of his career?

Kyrie is certainly capable of averaging 3 or 4 more assists per game. I'd like to know how many assists he averaged when LBJ didn't play since LBJ came back. I'd be surprised if his assist ratio is any higher with LBJ off the court than it is when LBJ was running the point. He just doesn't care about getting his teammates going or making them better. He's a 2 guard in a PG's body and I don't see that changing. He makes himself easier to defend because in critical situations, indeed over the course of entire games, no one in the building thinks Kyrie is going to pass. Watching Kyrie go one on three, or four, as a matter of course, as opposed to when it's absolutely necessary, is not something I'm going to miss.

Kyrie is a lousy teammate and he's a very difficult player to coach. There's also been numerous reports about how the Cavs F.O. had to repeatedly manage Kyrie's moodiness. I consider him to be a pretty disingenuous person. I've seen his Eddie Haskell routine too often. How many times since he was drafted has he said all the right things and then defaulted right back to not playing defense and not passing the ball? Byron Scott said that after Kyrie made the all star team as a rookie, he just stopped listening to him. Scott got fired. Mike Brown made Jarett friggin Jack PG because Kyrie wouldn't pass despite the team's poor performance with Kyrie playing hero ball. Brown got fired. There may have been good reasons for firing both coaches but a player on a rookie contract undermining not one, but two, coaches is a problem.

If there's one game that encapsulates the downside of Kyrie, it's the 2014 Jazz game after the big three first came together. The coaching staff was concerned about K. Love getting shut out of the offense. During a film session they emphasized getting Love going early in front of the entire team. The next game was against a bad Jazz team. Kyrie fired up the chuckamatic, had zero assists, and the Cavs lost. Kyrie is not going to sacrifice his scoring even if it means making his team better. Not even in a meaningless early season game on a team that has championship aspirations. Not even after the Cavs gave up Wiggins & a 1st to acquire Love. Which leads me to my last point...

LBJ was the best thing to happen to Kyrie's career. If he's going to play the way he wants to play, and be on a winning team, he needs to be next to a point forward who can get his teammates involved. He also needs to play next to an alpha like LBJ who will go to him after he gets zero assists and say that can't happen again. It's kind of hard for me to get my head around how self absorbed Kyrie must be not to see any of his flaws and to request a trade, with two years left on his contract, and off a team that's been to a Finals three years in a row.

As far as the trade: The narrative is that the trade was win-win or the Cavs won. From my perspective, it was really a best-out-of-a-bad-situation trade for both teams.

IT got caught up in his own hype with all that brink-truck talk. The Celtics weren't going to win a championship with IT as the best player on that team and he would've been practically untradeable on a max contract. The Celtics already had to trade good players for meh returns in order to clear space for Hayward. If IT walked next summer, they would've had to do that again. IT's contract situation was a time bomb that needed to be defused and he tanked his own trade value by insisting he would only take a max deal. So the Celtics defused that and, on paper, upgraded the position.

For the Cavs, they had to get value for Kyrie. I suspect that the Cavs had enough of the young man after the trade request. On paper, the Cavs won the trade but it really comes down to IT's health this year and how good that Brooklyn pick is at the end of the year. I'm not going to get into it, because this post is more than long enough, but this trade could end up being bad for both teams.

[thenbaman]

Congrats clevland your rookie GM smoked ainge,you guys got way better.

[Dupp]

Kyries never been a personal favourite of mine but I appreciate what he did and wish him well.

[Stillwater]

I think this trade may or may not be a major win for Cleveland depending on several factors; pick traded or used/ if used on who, Crowder and IT4's positive impact on a LBJ roster, which is much different than a Brad Stevens coached team, and if Zizic is retained and not flipped & delivers as by all metrics he projects to be an exceptional euro skilled center maybe a down the road fringe all star,which nobody seems to be realizing or putting out there in these trade discussions.
By all accounts Boston got the best offensive player in this deal because of his gifted scoring ability, but I think it is a loss for Boston's team as he is not a Brad Stevens type player (nor is Tatum for that matter) and it makes you wonder if KI will even buy in at all given his history here.It wouldn't shock me if he is traded by Boston next summer or walks in 2 yrs.

[jbk1234]

I think this trade may or may not be a major win for Cleveland depending on several factors; pick traded or used/ if used on who, Crowder and IT4's positive impact on a LBJ roster, which is much different than a Brad Stevens coached team, and if Zizic is retained and not flipped & delivers as by all metrics he projects to be an exceptional euro skilled center maybe a down the road fringe all star,which nobody seems to be realizing or putting out there in these trade discussions.
By all accounts Boston got the best offensive player in this deal because of his gifted scoring ability, but I think it is a loss for Boston's team as he is not a Brad Stevens type player (nor is Tatum for that matter) and it makes you wonder if KI will even buy in at all given his history here.It wouldn't shock me if he is traded by Boston next summer or walks in 2 yrs.

I wouldn't be even a little bit surprised if there's rumblings about the number of touches Horford & Hayward aren't getting before the all star break.

[Trailbreaker]

Thank you to Kyrie Irving for being such a big part of the Cavs franchise. I'm sure Cleveland will never forget 2016 and the parade.

[Stillwater]

Thank you to Kyrie Irving for being such a big part of the Cavs franchise. I'm sure Cleveland will never forget 2016 and the parade.

alot of good times w/ him breakin' down defenses, and his mastery of the glass is second to none, hitting the game winner in 16 etc. but other than the fact that this team is somewhat better equipped to win against GSW post the trade to Boston adding Crowder and Zizic we still don't have a replacement that is as dynamic at the pg position in IT4. IT4 is close as far as ability to be clutch and impact the game,and is strong in some areas KI was not but the size on Defense will hurt against long teams, even with Kyrie never playing much defense except in the post season, he could when he had too. IT4 won't be the 1st option here either so his impact will not be as noticeable as it was in Boston.If we are lucky LBJ will do for IT4 what he did for KI ,otherwise I think we are going to have to make more moves to get over the hump that puts us "in all games" against KD and the 4 headed monster in a 7 game series , might have too anyway.
Either way, we are better without him or at least better in other areas, and the pick could prove to be the asset that takes us over that hump.

[gflem]

Thanks to Kyrie for helping bring a title home to Cle. However he is now the enemy and I wont be rooting for him in any way, especially because he is a Celtic now. He can be unstoppable at times and that is required if a team wants to be successful in the playoffs so that part of his game will be missed.
Good write up JBK I agree that this trade could become a bad trade for the Cavs IF they trade the pick to help this year and Lebron bolts after the season. Unless this team wins a title this season or seriously pushes the W's in the finals I cant see the team re-signing IT due to his wanting a max contract, size, age, and defensive deficiencies.
I cant blame him for wanting the max after his monster season last year but he is nowhere near a max player at his size and ageeven if he is completely healthy.
So, if the pick is moved and the new Big Z is underwhelming this could turn out to be Crowder and whatever the return on the traded pick would become. Kind of scary to think about.

[Stillwater]

say goodbye to KI
say hello to IT4
Apparently him and KLove grew up in the aau circuit together, interesting dynamic I wasn't aware of.

[KuruptedCav]

Kyrie joins World B Free, Mike Mitchell, and Ron Harper as great Cavs scorers; but he isn't Lebron James (even if he leaves again), Larry Nance, Mark Price, etc.

It's sad because he was in line to join the likes of Brown, Feller, James, etc. with a statue, number retired, and classic throwback jerseys. Instead, he's chosen to make his mark somewhere else. I wish him no ill will; but also, no success.

The page turns to the next chapter and we introduce new characters. Let's hope they help move the plot along and aren't simply a side show...


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[bmurph128]

It's so hard to believe that the most iconic play in Cleveland sports history belongs to a guy who wanted traded a year later (and if reports are true, really a month later).

I'll be rooting for Kyrie going forward - I just irrationally like him as a basketball player, despite his faults.

I think IT will be a better example of the reality while Kyrie was here: we'll be better without him on the court. My hope is that without Kyrie, Love gets back to being more himself and can play better consistently against the Warriors (he did play well in a few games this year). If so I really like this lineup:

LeBron
JR
Crowder
Love
Thompson

or even

Rose
JR
Crowder
LeBron
Love/Thompson

And we could still improve the roster.

[bmurph128]

Also, IMO this trade was a major win for the Cavs. Don't care so much about IT - it's all about Crowder and that pick, which we could parlay into another piece to topple the Warriors.

[WestbrookLove]

say goodbye to KI
say hello to IT4
Apparently him and KLove grew up in the aau circuit together, interesting dynamic I wasn't aware of.

I'd read about that awhile back and figured Love was probably very happy to see IT come to the team. Here is a report:

https://cavsnation.com/cavs-news-isaiah-thomas-received-welcome-text-kevin-love/