Cleveland Cavaliers: Cavs can’t worry about Kyrie Irving comments

The Cleveland Cavaliers can’t worry about what Boston Celtics’ star Kyrie Irving has to say; it’s old news at this point.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team that’s looking forward now. It’s easy to dwell on past achievements of the last four years, which relates to four straight trips to the NBA Finals, and an NBA championship in 2016. We all miss LeBron James, but oh well. Kyrie Irving is an outstanding player, and we still miss him, too. He didn’t miss Cleveland and the Cavs at all it appears, though.

In the summer of 2017, Irving put in for a trade request. This was immediately following the Cavaliers just promoting Koby Altman to general manager, and it was quite the shock to the team, James, and the fan base at large.

Now going into his second year with the Boston Celtics after being traded there before the 2017-18 season, Irving is holding back no punches in regards to the Cavs. On Thursday night, Irving said that he plans on re-signing with the Celtics long-term, (per Celtics’ Official Twitter) despite rumors of him going elsewhere after next season.

I get it when it comes to that from Irving.

The C’s are probably the most iconic franchise in the NBA. They have the most championships in league history, they have the parquet floor and they have maybe the league’s best head coach in Brad Stevens.

General Manager Danny Ainge has also done a great job of acquiring talent, and the Celtics have a treasure chest of assets to go make their team potentially even better in the near future. Those assets are likely why Irving is on the Anthony Davis recruiting trail (according to The Athletic’s Jay King).

Shifting back to how this relates to the Cavaliers, it’s clear that Irving wanted a bailout in case LeBron left. James did leave, but that seemed drastic.

James probably wouldn’t have if Irving stuck around. Oh well. We’ll never know, and at least the Cavs have Collin Sexton now.

Irving really had to take it a step further in his bashing of the Cavaliers, and going the extra mile in his thanking of Boston (per Casey Baker of Binge Sports).

That seemed unnecessary, especially now. Irving got what he wanted with the Boston situation, so leave Cleveland and the organization alone.

I understand Irving doesn’t care what the Cavs and Cleveland think; that’s cool, and he has a team that can definitely control the Eastern Conference for the foreseeable future.

Did Irving need to rub salt in the wound? Absolutely not.

Should the Cavs care, though? No. The trade request and atmosphere around the organization from Irving’s perspective is something Altman and company can’t take back. It happened, but the Cavs have Kevin Love, Cedi Osman and a good young core.

Just like the James departure to the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency, Cleveland has to focus on the future and develop the talent now in their building.