The Kyrie Irving trade saga continues, five days after the original agreement between the Cavaliers and Celtics was first reached that would send Irving to Boston for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and Brooklyn’s 2018 first round pick. The trade hit a snag when the Cavs finally got Thomas in for his physical and realized his hip injury was more concerning than originally thought.
After the physical, Cleveland has reportedly reached back out to Boston in an effort to get more out of the Celtics since Thomas’ apparent value is diminished by his hip problem. Boston has alleged that they told Cleveland everything regarding Thomas’ situation, meaning they will likely fight the request for more and there is a slim chance that the deal ends up being voided.
However, both teams have reason to want to complete the deal, as both now have strained relationships with their since traded point guards, so it’s hard to figure out where the leverage lies in the situation. According to the latest SportsCenter report from Sunday by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cavs are hoping to leverage Boston out of one of their young stars, while Boston is rebuffing the idea (as transcribed by NESN).
“Now, Cleveland is going to try to inquire about a couple of the Celtics’ young players, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, who they tried to get in the original trade, that is very unlikely,” Wojnarowski said. “But Boston still has a war chest of future first-round picks of their own, and some picks they control from other teams, and Cleveland is going to try to get one more of those to finalize this deal.”
“Boston is resisting, and will initially at least, resist this idea. Boston believes that it was completely transparent with Cleveland about where Thomas was physically, his rehab. Cleveland’s version of this is that they didn’t realize how long Thomas could potentially be out this season, he’s in the final year of his contract, and obviously, that matches up with what will likely be the final year of LeBron’s current deal, and so there’s going to be a showdown between these two teams that may last a couple more days.”
The deadline for the two to reach a new agreement is Wednesday, with physicals needing to be completed by Thursday. That means the next three days figure to be filled with tons of reports about where the two sides stand. It’s not surprising that Cleveland would start by requesting Brown or Tatum, but considering how valuable the Brooklyn pick is and how Boston seemingly fought to keep both players, it’d be very surprising to see them agree to that.
The Cavs, should they agree to taking on another future pick from Boston — who own 2018 Lakers, 2019 Clippers, and 2019 Grizzlies first round picks — would be setting hopes on an eventual Thomas recovery being enough to convince LeBron to stay long term.
