Two beloved superstars from the best two teams in the Eastern Conference change hands in the trade that nobody thought would happen, right up until it did.
For months, Boston Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge had to sit quietly as the NBA community rained down insults over the Celtics’ inaction before the trade window closed. With so many assets at their disposal (thanks Brooklyn), elite coaching and an already strong core, what was Ainge waiting for? Was this mythical period of time known as ‘The Moment’ merely a catchphrase?
However, per Shams Charania, ‘The Moment’ arrived in the form of a package deal for Kyrie Irving, sending much beloved all-star Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Nets 2018 first round pick to Cleveland.
Essentially, ‘The Moment’ Ainge had been waiting for was a situation in which he could acquire a superstar that fit into the Celtics system and salary cap without the threat of a free-agency departure.
Today, Danny Ainge proved again that he has no loyalty to anybody. The last time this trait was displayed as vividly as this, championship winners Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry went to Brooklyn for the return of the brightest future in the NBA.
Although, while three championship winners are always loved, the underdog hustle of Isaiah made him particularly hard to lose.
(Image: Keith Allison CC BY-SA 2.0)
Thomas was rejected at every turn. He is just 175cm tall, picked last and traded for a bag of peanuts until he arrived in Boston, despite decent output. In Boston, Thomas battled through the tragic death of his sister, cried on the sideline in the arms of traded Avery Bradley and emitted pure courage, which won the hearts of not just Boston, but the entire NBA world.
To cap it all off, Thomas was picked last in the same draft Kyrie Irving went first.
Thomas’s shoulder now has so many chips, that it might need surgery.
Health concerns may have in fact played a role in Ainge’s decision to pull the trigger. Despite having a better season than Irving, Thomas played much of the playoffs with a hip injury.
Potentially, such an issue could take away some of his burst, which is crucial in allowing him to blow-by defenders on the perimeter and elevate for a around-the-basket finish. Thomas is also older than Irving, and would ask for a five-year max contract at the end of the upcoming season.
How many 28-year-old, 175cm point guards have been effective in the NBA? Why put so much money into guy whose best years are probably behind him?
(Image: Keith Allison/CC BY-SA 2.0)
Despite losing a valuable pick, the previous maneuvering of Ainge has allowed the Celtics to gain the Los Angeles pick in 2018, or be it with certain protections. However, it is more than likely that Boston can still acquire young talent next season.
On Cleveland’s side of the deal, new GM Koby Altman does well to cover two bases.
For the short term, the Cavaliers gets the added bonus of more depth. Jae Crowder has one of the best contracts in the league and can actually play defence, despite his moments of offensive madness. As previously discussed, Isaiah Thomas is a more than adequate Kyrie Irving replacement and can provide another season of championship contention in the LeBron James era.
Plus, while Isaiah Thomas has proven himself time and time again to be a great teammate, Kyrie is famous more for his flat-earth conspiracies than his passing.
It was a move the Cavaliers had to make, not just because of Kyrie’s demand, but also since the rumour of LeBron James’s departure was spoken into existence.
The Brooklyn pick considers the future with LeBron’s seemingly imminent move to Los Angeles in 2018 lurking in the background. Michael Porter, Luka Doncic or Marvin Bagley could all be franchise changing players that can result in a quick return to prominence for Cleveland if James decided to head out West.
Risks do come with this trade from Cleveland’s perspective. For one, the Brooklyn Nets pick may not be as good as expected.
It seems common knowledge on various NBA Facebook forums and discussion spaces, that the Nets will be bad and the first pick will now be in the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, as previously discussed on this website, Brooklyn quietly had a very good summer, leaving them with a solid starting five of Jeremy Lin, angry D’Angelo Russell, Allen Crabbe, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Timofey Mozgov.
Plus, the Nets have no incentive to tank. Why try to give a higher draft choice to the Cavaliers?
Another risk to the Cavaliers is the contract of Isaiah Thomas.
Although, according to Bobby Marks, it will save owner Dan Gilbert US$29.1 million in luxury tax in the short term, the possibility remains that he will leave at the same time as LeBron James. Thus, Ohio will be without any real superstars in the near future.
(EDrost88 / Flickr)
It must be said, that just like the Celtics, few teams may be willing to pay I.T. max money in a long-term arrangement.
However, Thomas could even go to a team like the Knicks, as Kyrie also considered.
That would be awesome to see. Hopefully, Knicks don’t spend US$71 million on a player like Tim Hardaway.
Too late.
By far, the biggest risk of the deal came regardless of the players involved in that culturally, such change can break a winning organisation.
The Evan Turner-Danny Granger trade in 2013 was a decent move at first for the Eastern Conference finalist Pacers.
In trading a commonly injured veteran Granger for a young Turner on a better contract, what could go wrong?
The answer is a lot.
Chemistry issues soon followed. Paul George was robbed of a mentor and Lance Stephenson had a sparring partner. Since then, the Pacers now sit in a pointless race for the eighth seed, the worst possible state of mediocrity anyone can be in.
While both teams risk destroying their locker room, the summer of upheaval for Boston has increased the risks slightly more. The loss of important teammates in Avery Bradley, Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk along with the Cleveland-bound Thomas and Crowder leaves the locker room in an uneasy position.
Hopefully, veterans such as Al Horford and the much lauded coaching of Brad Stevens can control a group of extremely talented players.
At this stage, the winner of this trade is unclear and it is quite possible that both teams benefit from this in both the short and long term.
If anything, the trade sets up a competitive Eastern Conference Finals, a phrase I never thought I would say a few months ago.
The Fatman
Guest
As much as I love this trade for the Cavaliers, I don't necessarily hate it for the Celtics, in no small part because the teams are operating on slightly different timelines. For Cleveland, it's mostly about next season, making Thomas' expiring contract actually somewhat ideal. From Boston's standpoint, Thomas' impending free agency meant a difficult decision. As he's repeatedly made clear, Thomas expects a max deal next summer as an unrestricted free agent. I'm not convinced such an offer is forthcoming given the limited number of teams who project to have cap space, but either way re-signing Thomas would mean handing a lucrative, long-term contract to a 5-foot-9 point guard heading into his 30s. (Thomas will turn 29 during the upcoming season.) Re-signing Thomas would have pushed the Celtics deep into the luxury tax and meant tying up the vast majority of their payroll in two players (Thomas and Al Horford) in the back half of their careers. Boston might have been able to survive that with internal development from the numerous young prospects on the roster, but that would have been tricky to manage. From an age standpoint, the 25-year-old Irving fits neatly between the Celtics' youngsters and fellow newcomer Gordon Hayward (age 27). As noted, his playoff track record suggests Boston has upgraded when it really counts for a team that should be favored to reach the Eastern Conference finals each of the next two seasons. So, overall, he's unquestionably an upgrade on Thomas despite the strong performance of the incumbent Celtics point guard. The question, then, is whether Irving is enough of an upgrade to merit giving up so much else. And that's where my answer is less positive. The loss of Crowder shouldn't be minimized. His RPM rating ranked him 20th in the league last season -- better than Irving or Thomas. That rating surely flatters Crowder's impact, but he's a versatile role player on one of the league's best contracts. Trading him simultaneously weakens Boston and strengthens the rival Cavaliers, a fascinating and unusual aspect of this trade between the top two teams in the East. The loss of Crowder further compromises the Celtics' depth, a strength the last two-plus seasons since Thomas' arrival. Suddenly, Boston has lost six of the seven players who saw the most minutes for the team last season. (Only Horford remains.) The deal Cavaliers get: Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, Nets' 2018 first-round pick Celtics get: Kyrie Irving Cleveland Cavaliers: The timing of Irving's trade request heading into what could be the final season of LeBron James' contract (he holds a player option for the 2018-19 season) put rookie Cavaliers GM Koby Altman in a tricky situation. Should Cleveland prioritize trying to win a championship now with James on the roster or start thinking about a potential future without him? This trade allowed the Cavaliers to accomplish both goals simultaneously. There's a case to be made that adding Thomas and Crowder gives Cleveland a better chance of winning the 2018 NBA championship than the Cavaliers would have had keeping Irving. Crowder is precisely the kind of 3-and-D contributor Cleveland needed to better match up with the Golden State Warriors and hadn't yet added this offseason. (Jeff Green, signed for the veteran's minimum, doesn't count as a player of that caliber.) Crowder can play the role Richard Jefferson filled during the Cavaliers' comeback from a 3-1 deficit against Golden State in the 2016 NBA Finals, playing alongside James at forward and defending either Kevin Durant or Draymond Green while also having the capability of switching out on the Warriors' guards. While Crowder's 39.8 percent 3-point shooting last season looks out of place with the rest of his career, he's a capable enough outside shooter to keep defenders honest and be more valuable than Jefferson at the other end of the court. Getting two starting-caliber players -- it's unclear whether Crowder might start alongside James on the wing or come off the bench -- for one dramatically improves Cleveland's depth, which should help the Cavaliers manage James' minutes during the regular season. The hope of Cleveland being better in 2017-18 does rest on Thomas' health. He suffered a torn hip labrum during last year's postseason that sidelined Thomas after Game 2 of last year's Eastern Conference finals against the Cavaliers. Doctors determined over the summer that surgery was not necessary, but Celtics head coach Brad Stevens recently told Chris Mannix that the team wouldn't be sure of Thomas' timetable for training camp until after a scan in early September. While adding Crowder is a clear win, Cleveland does downgrade to some extent at point guard. Granted, Thomas was a better player in the 2016-17 regular season than Irving; he used a higher share of his team's plays and scored more efficiently, which landed him a spot on the All-NBA Second Team while Irving wasn't selected to any of the three teams. But Irving matched his offensive performance in the playoffs, part of a consistent trend of postseason improvement. And while both players have been defensive liabilities, Irving's issues have more to do with effort than size, allowing him to improve defensively in the crucible of the playoffs. Boston has matched up well with Golden State with Thomas at point guard, but largely because former backcourt-mate Avery Bradley allowed the Celtics to crossmatch defensively. Some of the defensive gain the Cavaliers make in a potential Finals rematch with the Warriors is offset by replacing Irving with Thomas. Even if you don't believe this trade makes Cleveland more likely to win the 2018 championship, the fact that it's even debatable is a huge win for the Cavaliers. It's unclear whether keeping Irving was realistic after his desire to get out of James' shadow was reported as an explanation for his trade request, and it would be hard to beat the short-term value of this package in an Irving trade. Above and beyond that, Cleveland also adds long-term value in 2018-19 and beyond by getting the Brooklyn Nets' 2018 first-round pick. Though the Nets have improved the team that finished with the NBA's worst record a year ago, projections based on ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM) have Brooklyn in the league's bottom five on average. The average simulation based on those projections has the Nets' pick coming up fifth overall, with a reasonable chance (around 9 percent) of it landing No. 1 overall a second consecutive year. In the event James walks away next summer, the Cavaliers can let Thomas leave as well and kick start their rebuilding effort with (in all likelihood) a lottery pick in hand. In such a scenario, Crowder would surely have plenty of trade value with two years and approximately $15 million remaining on his contract. Overlooked in this deal, Cleveland also gets a useful center prospect in Ante Zizic, the No. 23 pick of the 2016 Draft who has posted strong numbers overseas despite limited athleticism. Things actually get a little trickier if James stays, in which case re-signing Thomas would push Cleveland's payroll deeper into the luxury-tax stratosphere. (For this season, the Cavaliers potentially save more than $30 million in taxes because the three players they added make less combined than Irving.) But at this point, that's a problem the Cavaliers would be thrilled to have. And this trade solves several others for Cleveland.
Lachie Abbott
Roar Pro
No worries :)
Ben Sewell
Roar Pro
Nice article mate, cheers for the plug ;)