Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas swapped teams last week, though that deal may be far from official. The results of Isaiah Thomas’ physical were not promising for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who may want more from Boston to officially complete the trade.
It’s a complicated matter that doesn’t seem to have a clear resolution. If the Cavs ask for more and don’t get it there’s a potential that the whole trade is vetoed and both players return to their respective former teams. But there’s now considerable speculation that the issues with the trade were coming all along. Some even think it was part of the plan for the Cavaliers in the first place.
That’s not completely unheard of, but it certainly does make a mess of things if the sides involved aren’t being completely honest. Steve Bulpett from the Boston Herald appeared on The Vertical Podcast with Chris Mannix on Tuesday and said he’s heard the Cavaliers were expecting what they saw from Thomas’ physical with the team.
That certainly frames Cleveland potential request for more in a very different light, and it makes them out to be a party acting in bad faith in asking for more for Irving. From Bulpett (as transcribed by Tom Westerholm of Mass Live):
My read is actually from the Cleveland side, and what I hear from there is that nothing they’ve found is anything different than what was conveyed to the Cavaliers in the trade discussions, and certainly in the medical information that was passed forward.
This backs up earlier reports that Boston had been forthcoming with Thomas’ injury situation, and calls into question the motives of the Cavs’ front office. If they knew the extent of Thomas’ injury, it’s tough for them to say they were duped and deserve something to sweeten the pot.
Another ESPN reporter seems to think the plan was for the Cavaliers to hold this trade up all along, using Thomas’ injury as leverage to get more from Boston as the trade drama played out publicly.
That report certainly fits in with Bulpett’s statement, though I mostly still don’t know what a “chicken and mouse game” is. In any event, it looks like this is far from over. Both sides of the trade are trying to position themselves above the other through media reports. Neither player has said anything about the deal, and I’d guess they just want it to get settled and move on. But in a world where players are assets and trades represent a team’s future as much as its present, it looks like Cleveland’s initiated a process that will be very, very interesting to watch unfold.
