As news broke of Kyrie Irving’s desire to leave Cleveland and become the focal point of a side, it sent 29 teams into a spin on how they could possibly acquire the All Star guard.
Since then, it has been revealed the Irving has four desirable destinations, being the San Antonio Spurs, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Miami Heat and the New York Knicks.
It is true that Cleveland could both choose a different destination for Irving, or could even refuse the offer and keep Irving around for a further two years (Irving’s third year is a player option in this current deal).
In this instance, it is likely however that Cleveland will listen to Irving’s requests and send him to a team of his desire. Of those four teams, there is only only that fully suits the current situation.
That is, a place for Irving to become the centrepiece, while also being able to provide the required trade pieces. That team, is the New York Knicks.
The Knicks offer Irving a place where he can be the undoubted number one on the floor. While it’s true, that Kristaps Porzingis currently projects to be the Knicks’ best player in the future, he is not quite there yet. In 2016-17, Porzingis posted 18.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.
Good numbers yes, but when compared to Irving who posted 25.2 points, 5.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game, it doesn’t compare. Irving also has play off and finals experience and has shown with, what some people have dubbed ‘the shot’ has that clutch factor all 30 teams in the Association desire.
(EDrost88 / Flickr)
The Knicks can also offer Cleveland the very best deal for Irving. As Irving has two years left on his deal, is in the prime of his career and at this stage in his career, appears to be a good “locker room guy”, there is no reason to suggest Cleveland will accept cents on the dollar.
They’re going to want to maximise the return they get on their former number one overall pick and who can blame them?
New York can offer Cleveland a deal involving Carmelo Anthony, their recently drafted rookie Frank Ntilikina and perhaps a future first on top. This may seem like a lot to the naked eye, but consider this.
Irving is one of the best point guards in the league who has recently won All Star and All NBA selections, while also having won a title.
Meanwhile, Anthony has not been relevant in the league for years and Ntilikina, although talented, is an unknown commodity in this league. This is the kind of deal that gets trades for superstars like this across the line.
New York should know, they gave up the kitchen sink (and more) back in 2011 to pry Anthony away from the Denver Nuggets.
Compare that to what the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs can offer. The Heat probably pose the biggest risk to the Knicks. They can offer future draft picks and fellow former All NBA point guard Goran Dragic.
If not for the Knicks offer, this would clearly be the best possible chance for Cleveland to accrue what they’re about to lose in Irving.
If this was six months into the future, the Timberwolves could chime in with a great offer of their own in trading Irving for former Cavalier Andrew Wiggins and Jeff Teague.
However as Teague has just signed for Minnesota in free agency, they are unable to trade him at this stage. Lastly, the Spurs can only realistically offer LaMarcus Aldridge and role players which in this instance, is unlikely to get the deal across the line.
As for what Irving can offer New York, well that’s simple. Kyrie Irving is one of the greatest scorers in the league at this time.
At this stage, he has career averages of 21.6 points and 5.5 assists with 1.3 steals per game. He has proved time and again that he can make the big plays, both in the regular and post season.
He’s a good locker room guy and gels well with others. This is the perfect combination for what the Knicks need.
They need someone to pair with Porzingis to take them back to the glory they’ve been deprived in the past few decades. Not since Patrick Ewing’s Knicks in the 90’s, have the knick been consistently relevant in this league.
It’s time for the New York Knicks to reclaim their dominance in this league and Kyrie Irving is the man to help them do this.
mushi
Guest
He was decent but not "great"
Jerry
Guest
D'oh, and the 94 finals - dunno how I forgot about that one. Must have been too distracted by OJ and his white Bronco.
Jerry
Guest
Didn't win a title though, best they ever did was getting to the finals in a shortened season from memory.
Clown
Guest
Ever heard of Patrick Ewing? He was pretty decent.
Wayne Turner
Guest
Irving needs to be told he's wasting his time,wanting to be number 1 for the Spurs.That's what Leonard already is.
joe
Guest
Kyrie Irving the next great Knick? What qualifies as 'great'? The Knicks are a joke of an organization & have been for the better part of 50 years now.Who was their last great player who won anything? Walt Frazier ?
BrainsTrust
Guest
that is another point as to why player loyalty is ridiculous in the NBA. IF you can be traded like an antique vase at the teams discretion apart from the few with no trade clauses. I am a bigger fan of Bogut than Durant, Bogut was shown no loyalty, and he didn't complain that he was being sent packing.I was just having an ironic jab that Bogut should be considered numero uno if chasing titles was considered the new crime.
BrainsTrust
Guest
Thats not how it works, Bogut was a buy out that he negotiated not a full waiver, so Bogut would have had to sacrifice if not the remainder of his salary for that season close to it to get waived .
Mushi
Guest
The other factor is he's not that good. He's a lesser point guard version of Melo. He's an elite off the bounce scorer, terrible train wreck of a defender with no work ethic at that end (see his defence for team USA v cavs) and an average distributor for his usage rate an penetration. If they can convince teams Irving is a #1 option and get depth say a rim protector (they are "cheap" these days) and 2 3 and D guys I think they're a better team
your mum
Guest
and Walker you would think would appreciate the chance just to be on a team like the cavs after carrying one of the worst his whole career, add Monk it sounds like a win-win trade imo.
your mum
Guest
Howard and Irving would go in my opinion, but i suspect Irving must be stupid, a team like the Spurs would never have a guy who asked to be traded from the second best team with the best player in the world because he wanted to be "the guy".San Antonio is a small market anyway, you wanna be "the guy" but do it in a small market? It just all screams him having a pee brain with a MASSIVE ego
your mum
Guest
and he got traded to make way for your crush durant
Swampy
Guest
He can't possibly be as athletic but that is why he needs to become a shooter.
your mum
Guest
Bogut suffered a horrific injury that would end most careers,then he got traded the to warriors then another injury for the warriors (then same one that kept Embiid out for 2 yrs) , then traded to Dallas, then to 76ers, then put on waivers. He is a business savvy bloke off the floor and has made plenty of money on it. He was Australia's highest paid sportsmen for most of his career, and he doesn't have a massive ego like most NBA players, he will be "shamelessly" (I think sacrificing 10-15 mil for a vet minimum is far from shameful) getting back in on the action this season for next to nothing on a top team.
Swampy
Guest
Well very simply free agents can sign with whomever they want thus the name 'free agent' - it would be restraint of trade to nix a free agent signing. The Chris Paul deal was a trade - hence the difference and Stern's ability to act in the Hornets favour. Might I add that the Lakers have done rather well over time with both trades and free agent signings. Wilt, Kareem, Worthy, Shaq, Kobe - it's always been a destination city for great players. Let's not forget after Chris Paul was nixed the Lakers signed Steve Nash & Dwight Howard and at the time we thought they would become unbeatable. Not every super team ends up being super
Swampy
Guest
Why would anyone want Walker?
Footballer
Guest
Knicks World Champs 2018.
astro
Guest
Remember, the league owned the Hornets when the CP3 deal happened and then didn't happen. Safe to say that if the league owned OKC last year, they would have definitely nixed the KD to the Warriors deal in a similar fashion!
astro
Guest
Yep, agree. Love is not unlike a lot of PFs in the game, who went from being critical players to almost irrelevant in a couple of years! For the record, I still like Love...If only he could block shots! Also agree with the Thompson, Love, Melo and Lebron combo being an odd one. They'd be the four highest paid guys on the team, yet, you can't play them together.
astro
Guest
Who says he wouldn't re-sign with the team he is traded to? Two years is a long time in the NBA. If you look at the 40 highest paid players in the game, 18 of them have contracts which extend into 2019 or beyond, and some of those have just been signed...so Kyrie's contract situation won't deter anyone. That's the big difference between the Kyrie situation and other starts wanting to leave...the Cavs have leverage. Teams like the Pacers with Paul George had none, because George had only one year left and has specifically stated he wants to go to LA, so any team trading for him (ie. OKC) very likely know they're getting him on a one-year rental. Teams trading for Kyrie are getting a championship winning star scorer, with two years (maybe three) and know they have as good a chance as any to convince him to stay. That's worth a LOT more than 33yr old with a track record of under-performance, and a completely unproven rookie yet to play a minute of NBA basketball...especially for the Cavs who are in 'win-now' mode.