At some point in the very near future, barring the trade completely falling apart, it looks like the Boston Celtics are going to acquire Kyrie Irving. Danny Ainge performed a roster makeover that’s worthy of an HGTV show, turning over last year’s roster of scrappy role players and a career-year having Isaiah Thomas into a star-studded team that will start the aforementioned Irving, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford (one of the few remaining from last year’s squad) and a Morris Twin — which will make the budding Celtics/Wizards rivalry even more intriguing.
That being said, some ask, if the 2018 unprotected Brooklyn pick was the Holy Grail that teams were all seeking in terms of trade pieces, why would Danny Ainge trade it for Kyrie Irving and not better positional fits such as Jimmy Butler and Paul George that may have allowed them to keep Avery Bradley.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe has the answer, with sources telling him George was an issue of timing, as Indiana pulled the trigger with Oklahoma City surprisingly quickly leaving Boston out of the loop without the chance to boost their offer after landing Hayward. There is still a question of whether the Celtics would have juiced their offer for George, considering there are very real concerns that he will bolt for Los Angeles next season — that’s especially the case now that the NBA is looking into possible tampering violations by the Lakers and Magic Johnson.
As for a Butler trade, another star with multiple years remaining on his deal, it was all about a chemistry concern for the Celtics regarding how he would mesh with their top free agent target (now signing) Gordon Hayward on the wing.
“The ‘why not Butler and George?’ questions are dicier. Timing played a part. Boston wanted two All-Star-level building blocks. They feared flipping their golden trade chip for the first one, whiffing on the second, and ending up having squandered their best asset to build a team that wasn’t appreciably better than their previous iteration of LeBron roadkill.
They preferred signing the first one — Hayward — in free agency, and then jumping headlong into the trade market. They may well have Paul George now had the Pacers waited another 10 days, but Boston was concerned George would leave for the Lakers in a year. Irving’s deal runs one season longer, and he has already relayed an enthusiasm for playing in Boston.
The Celtics had some concerns over how Hayward and Butler would mesh, both on the court and as personalities, sources say.”
If the Celtics were afraid to deal for Jimmy Butler because of timing instead of price, it makes sense. Jimmy Butler alone isn’t going to put the current Celtics over the Cavaliers, that said it’s a fair question to ask if the Celtics’ current roster is good enough either, and they’re now without the biggest asset in the NBA to add any help.
But the chemistry questions involving Jimmy Butler don’t seem to make too much sense, in spite of the fact that he admitted that some of his former Bulls teammates might not have liked him, and it feels as much like another excuse leaked by the Celtics organization as to why a trade didn’t happen as legitimate reasoning.
