CAVALIERS SOURCES: IRVING FORCED TRADE WITH THREAT
Cavs’ skid prompts look at why team parted with star.
As the Cavaliers CLEVELAND — try to save their season through potential trades, the big one they pulled off last summer doesn’t look so good right now.
With the Celtics leading Cleveland by 6.5 games for first place in the East and the Cavs two-tenths of a percentage point behind the Sacramento Kings for the league’s worst defense, sending Kyrie Irving to the Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and two draft picks seems, well, questionable.
Cleveland’s starters with Thomas were being outscored by an average of 22.8 points per 100 possessions in eight games prior to Friday’s home game against Indiana. Crowder headed to the bench Friday, and the team had lost 11 of its last 15.
Oh, and the Brooklyn Nets have the NBA’s seventh-worst record. Their first-round pick, obtained in the trade, has a 4.3 percent chance of being first overall.
Why did the Cavs feel compelled to trade Irving in the first place?
Irving’s desire and request to leave last summer are well documented. Wanting to leave LeBron James’ shadow and the culture James dominated in Cleveland, upset that former general manager David Griffin was gone and miffed that the Cavs considered trading him to Indiana for Paul George, Irving asked owner Dan Gilbert to trade him.
Gilbert didn’t have to honor the request, though, as Irving had two years left on his contract. But according to multiple sources, Irving threatened to sit out the season and have surgery on his knee, convincing Gilbert and Cleveland’s front office that the relationship was not salvageable.
Irving’s agent, Jeff Wechsler, declined to discuss what was said to the Cavs, and Gilbert did not personally respond to a request seeking comment.
Sources say Irving needs minor knee surgery as a follow to the procedure he underwent during the 2015 Finals to repair his broken kneecap. It’s not pressing — Irving is averaging 24.5 points and shooting a career-high .477 from the field — but the procedure would ease some of the swelling and day-today pain he feels.
Such a procedure is typically done in the offseason, but Irving threatened to not come to training camp (first reported by ESPN) and then have the procedure during the season, leaving the Cavs without a point guard.
James, who can be a free agent at season’s end, is frustrated by the team’s prolonged rut, and has made it no secret in recent weeks that he felt Irving shouldn’t have been traded.
According to multiple sources, James asked the front office not to trade Irving after the request was made known, promising to bridge the apparent gap with him. James was told the Cavs believed they had no choice but to trade Irving.
“I went straight to the guy,” James said in September, describing his interaction with Irving before he was traded. James has refused repeated requests to disclose why the Cavs said Irving had to be traded.
“(Irving) basically just let me know that that was the direction that he wanted to go in,” James said. “And I was OK with that. And it’s a business. I understand that. It doesn’t stop me from leading this franchise and leading this team and going on about it.”
As for trading Irving specifically to the Celtics, the Cavs’ top rival in the East, Cleveland obviously felt Boston had the most to offer — beginning with the Brooklyn draft pick.