Celtics are sending Thomas, Crowder, Ante Zizic and Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round pick for Kyrie Irving, league sources tell The Vertical. https://t.co/gdaT9UjVGl
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 22, 2017
Well, didn’t see this coming when I woke up this morning. Celtics get Kyrie Irving for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Nets’ unprotected first round pick in 2018. That’s a lot. A lottttttttttttttttt to give up. Say goodbye to the Marvin Bagley/Michael Porter dream duo. Also say goodbye to the logjam of wing players and big men, which is definitely a positive, and could open the door for a for a big time Jaylen Brown second season.
Anyway, always said I was a big Kyrie guy, everyone knows that. Always been at the front of the Kyrie bandwagon. He’s better than Curry, right? He better be, to give up all of that. Still, that’s the way NBA trades work. To get a player of Kyrie’s pedigree and track record, you have to give up a lot. It would have been nice to keep Zizic, but when you have a chance to acquire one of the most purely talented scorers and ballhandlers in league history, you do it and figure it out later. They avoid the Isaiah quandary next offseason and gain an extra year of control on the best player on the roster. The rotation is shaping up a little more now, although it would have been reeeeeeeeeealllly nice to have the one guy in the East who can guard Kyrie still on the roster. Can’t really fault them for not foreseeing that Kyrie would get sick of LeBron, but still. It was a bad trade then and it’s a horrible trade now. Celtics’ backcourt might be the worst defensively in the league. Oh, well. Maybe they think Isaiah’s injury is worse than it appears. I think I’ve talked myself into this. 2017-18 championship parade is back on.
Reason 53,395,392 the NBA is fixed: first game of the season is Celtics vs Cavs and the Cavs will get the number one pick when LeBron leaves again.
Brian's Den 