HurricaneKid wrote:Its pretty clear Ainge wanted an out for dealing with IT next offseason. He didn't want to overpay him but Celtics fans LOVE IT2s blue collar spirit. This certainly gives him an out. But contract wise, its not that different. IT makes 6M this year. Kyrie makes 38M over the next two years. IT isn't even ELIGIBLE to make 32M next year and Kyrie will be making more than him in Y3+. Now obviously Kyrie is several years younger (3). I think the injury is worse than people suspect. I had his exact injury and they only way to improve it is to shave down the bone where it impinges the labrum and clean up the labrum. And for NBA purposes its a 9 mo recovery because of the bone removal. If he is going to demand a long term deal he will HAVE to have the surgery at some point during that deal or will miss massive amounts of the season all the time and risk permanent loss of the labrum.
If you look at Kyrie on, LeBron off stats his personal lines are great but team %s drop off a cliff and team effectiveness drops to mid lotto quality. Its almost BKnight on steroids. I already think of Stevens as a god. If he can make Kyrie an effective playmaker I will be even more impressed.
I didn't know the injury to IT was anything long term until this trade happened and people started talking about it. If that's the case and Cavs either don't have IT this year or can't trade him for something useful at the deadline then it hurts the notion that this is a clear Cavs win in the trade. Furthermore, it makes it obvious why Celts did it. They figure IT won't be nearly as good this year or be out a lot, and show the injury to the league thus killing his trade value at the deadline. So, make the move now and get value out of him. Plus they know they don't want to hand him a big deal.
Also, if that's the case the Cavs should really be looking to move Love guard help. Something has to be out there that could work. Then embrace the small ball world and use Crowder/LBJ in whatever combo at 3/4 you prefer. Some way of getting Bledsoe/Chandler back could work for the win now aspects. However, it really seems Cavs are planning on a LBJ exit so probably don't want to take on contracts.
Anyone know if this trade is still in the 'pending physicals' stages or if it's completely done?
Resident Lillard truther since 2015.