When the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Kyrie Irving in a blockbuster deal for Isaiah Thomas, the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and a second-round selection, the franchise certainly couldn’t have imagined it would deconstruct the package sent over from the Boston Celtics in the coming months.
Thomas, who suffered a hip injury during his playoff run with the Celtics, would never quite be the same. On and off the court, the Cavaliers struggled.
The point guard spent months calling out the organization for the way they handled adversity and their lack of trust and hard work on defense. Thomas even reportedly “led the charge” against veteran Kevin Love in a team meeting. As for how he looked on the court, Thomas couldn’t quite put it together on either end, struggling to mesh with LeBron James on offense and struggling to find his footing on defense.
Everything boiled over when Thomas was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal where Cleveland landed Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance. But before the Cavaliers match up with the Lakers on Sunday night for the first time since the move, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and Brian Windhorst broke down exactly why everything didn’t work out in the short marriage between I.T. and Cleveland.
The story detailed how Thomas, among other things, pushed everyone around him, and not often in a positive way. He clawed back through a difficult hip rehab and was described as “prickly” as he battled his way to the court before he was 100 percent. The “book on Thomas” was described as him wearing on teammates and coaches, which seemed to be the case in Cleveland.
James reportedly also privately complained about the players Cleveland surrounded him with after watching other teams’ all-time greats be positioned with quality guys. It didn’t help that James was reportedly disappointed with how the trade went down, as a businessman, to begin with.
When it was apparent to Thomas provided neither quality play nor humility, it was time to go in another direction.
The All-Star whom the Cavs got for James wasn’t impressing him. Or other players on the team.
As one team source put it, when asked about Thomas in the week leading up to the trade deadline: “I’m all for an underdog story, but you usually expect some humility to be a part of that story.”
Cleveland knows it had to pull out all the stops to appease James and hope he sticks around this offseason, and as the Thomas trade showed, the Cavaliers are already doing everything in their power to make it work. Since the point guard was moved, the Cavaliers and Lakers are both 7-5 as they enter their matchup on Sunday night at 9 p.m.
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