Sources earlier this week from Brian Windhorst of ESPN have stated that Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers has asked the team for a trade to evade LeBron James.
Now, Irving explained to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert that he wants to be the focal point of a NBA franchise and no longer wants to be LeBron James’s wing man or second man on the totem pole on this talented Cavaliers team who has been to the NBA finals for the past three years straight.
Kyrie Irving was drafted first overall by the Cavaliers in the 2011 NBA draft from Duke University. He has developed over the years to be the one of the league’s best point guard and he arguably has the best handles of anyone who plays in the NBA today.
He wants to leave Cleveland now after six years and either join the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks or the Miami Heat which essentially makes this a money grab and to avoid the problems going on right now within the Cavaliers organization. He has to understand that these teams will not be in the NBA finals next year or in the next three years (which is the rest of his contract right now these teams would have to pick up) with or without him.
The San Antonio Spurs are a system team run by Gregg Popovich which is all about ball movement and sharing the ball and Kyrie Irving is a cold blooded scorer so he clearly would not fit.
The New York Knicks are a complete dumpster fire and would have to give up picks in the next coming drafts which would cripple them even more and set them even farther back of rebuilding and possibly Carmelo Anthony or Kristaps Porziņģis which would never benefit the Knicks or Irving.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are up and coming and should be much better with the addition of Jimmy Butler and the maturity and growth of both Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns but even with the addition of Kyrie Irving it still would not put them over the top of the Golden State Warriors in the Eastern Conference.
The Miami Heat are now a borderline playoff team after LeBron James went back home to Cleveland and has no real star or leader of that team. However, no matter what, the Heat will never get past LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers even with the addition of Kyrie Irving.
He simply can not lead a franchise and will not to be able to lead any of those teams he wants to be traded to. When LeBron James left Cleveland for the beaches of Miami when he joined the Heat in 2010, Kyrie Irving the following year was supposed to be the Cavaliers savior. He was supposed to be LeBron’s replacement (because the Cavaliers had no idea if LeBron would ever come back at that point in time) and finally lead Cleveland to its’ first ever NBA championship.
Yet, that was not the case. in Irving’s first three seasons with the Cavaliers he and his team had a combined 78-152 record and never saw the playoffs once until LeBron James returned to the team prior to the 2014/2015 season and even with the return of LeBron James, Irving has still not excelled when playing without LeBron. Last season, the Cavaliers were outscored by 90 points in 574 minutes when Irving played and James did not. Also, during this past years playoffs, they were outscored by 30 points in 61 minutes. In the 2017 NBA finals against the Golden State Warriors, the Cavaliers were outscored 37-13 when Irving was on the court and James was off so again he just can not put his team on his shoulders and lead them to a victory on his own, he needs the help of a better and stronger player.
So Kyrie Irving should get off his high horse and think about the only team he has ever known and be grateful he gets to play with one or if not the greatest basketball player to ever play the game in LeBron James. He has to understand that if he wants to keep making the NBA finals and having the best chances to win it every year then he needs to help out and also tell LeBron that the Cavaliers need to do a better job in free agency and figure out the front office in order to compete with the Eastern Conference and ultimately the Golden State Warriors who will have the best chance once again to come out of the Western Conference to make the NBA finals.
