Thoughts on the Blockbuster Trade
Well, it is officially done. Kyrie is a Celtic and IT is a Cav. Wow. This is a tough deal for me to swallow. Let’s be honest, Thomas is a true warrior on the court. He plays with such passion and his story is great. He brought back Celtic pride. And even taking my personal love for him out, I find myself being somewhat in the middle when breaking down this trade. There is a lot of factors and we won’t know how much it really helps/hurts us until the middle or even the end of the regular season. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge Kyrie guy. I had his jersey way before I had IT’s. I don’t love the trade but I guess I don’t hate it either. Like I said, I’m in the middle.
I don’t know where to start when breaking down this deal so I’ll begin by saying this: do not be confused, Bostonians, this trade DOES NOT put us past Cleveland for the 2017-2018 season. Sure Kyrie is great, but in my opinion he does not make us better than the Cavs who not only have a stronger big 3, but now have added much needed depth with Jae Crowder and D-Rose. Those two guys coming off the bench will be huge and if you think Kyrie, Hayward and Horford are anywhere in the same sentence with Thomas, Lebron and Love then you should re-evaluate. Let’s note, IT will not have to be a 30 points per game guy with the Cavs. The Cavs basically still have Kyrie if he lost some defensive ability. IT is undoubtedly as good offensively and the addition of Crowder will help them defensively. This is a trade for the future, Boston. However, depending on how the Nets do this year it may not help us as much as we think.
Getting Kyrie is an upgrade because we never would have signed Thomas after this season. Kyrie is a much younger player that we have for a few seasons, that is more deserving of a max deal. As far as a move for the future, that checks out. Now, the game changer in this deal will be the Net’s unprotected 2018 first round pick. This is a great draft class and Ainge must have made this trade assuming Brooklyn will not be as bad as people think. I’ve heard people complain about the trade saying they were giving up the possible 1st overall pick. Let’s stop with that please. This is not the single worst team in the NBA in my opinion and also, I believe the pick can only be 2-5. With that being said, this will surely be a great pick in a loaded draft class it is just a matter of, will this pick be the second overall? Or will it fall somewhere to five-ish? If the pick does end up being the second overall then this is not the steal that some people think it is. Still, Irving is a franchise player at just 25 years old. The question is: is upgrading to Kyrie worth IT, Crowder, Zizic and a possible second overall pick in the 2018 draft? That is where I fall in the middle. Part of me thinks, yeah it’s worth it. Part of me thinks, god damn Aigne you never fail to disappoint me. What we think the plan should be is, resign Kyrie after 2019, shed Horford in 2020, start the dynasty and hope by that time, Lebron has left for LA setting the C’s up for multiple NBA Finals appearances and wins. It’s not as far fetched as you may think. Be patient, the dynasty is just around the corner.
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