Cleveland Cavaliers: To no shock, Irving trade was key in James’ departure
By Dan Gilinsky
The Cleveland Cavaliers play the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, marking the first time LeBron James returns to Cleveland as a Laker. The Cavs’ legend recently discussed why he left with The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, and to no shock, the infamous Kyrie Irving trade last summer was a huge reason LeBron left Cleveland for the second time via free agency.
LeBron James will always be loved by fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers, or at least the ones that are reasonable. His 11 years with Cleveland were incredible, and nobody can really blame James for leaving earlier this year to go to the Los Angeles Lakers. He carried the Cavs in the 2018 postseason, seemingly by himself to a large degree, and not having Kyrie Irving on the floor with him increased his burden tremendously. With L.A. playing the Cavs in Cleveland Wednesday, James touched on why he left Cleveland again with The Athletic’s Joe Vardon (h/t Bleacher Report’s Tyler Conway), and the notable takeaway was that when Cleveland traded Kyrie Irving, that was the “beginning of the end” for him in “The Land,” part two.
The Vardon piece (subscription required), highlighted how the Cavs and general manager Koby Altman agreed with James that the Irving trade to the Boston Celtics wouldn’t happen, but “15 mins later, it did.”
The Kyrie Irving trade did not work well for Cleveland, as the pieces brought in from Boston didn’t pan out. Isaiah Thomas, Ante Zizic, Jae Crowder and a first-round in the 2018 NBA Draft didn’t come close to the level of Irving. Thomas’ hip injury caused him to be unavailable until January of this past season, and he was not effective when he did come back; Crowder primarily at the 4 worked out horribly for Cleveland on both ends, and Zizic is progressing, but still has a long way to go to be a consistent every-night player on the worst team currently in the NBA.
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The Celtics’ first-round pick allowed the Cleveland Cavaliers to select rookie point guard Collin Sexton, who is coming along as of late in a starting role, and averaging 12.9 points on 44.0 percent shooting and 2.3 assists per game.
Nonetheless, losing potentially the two best players the Cavaliers have ever had (potentially we can say that by the time Irving retires) has put Cleveland suddenly in a need for a drastic rebuild.
Initially, it appeared that shipping out Thomas and Crowder at last year’s trade deadline and bringing in Rodney Hood, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr., in addition to having Kevin Love, Sexton, Tristan Thompson and up-and-comer Cedi Osman would allow the Cavs to potentially compete for an Eastern Conference postseason birth.
That obviously has not proven to be realistic; the Cleveland Cavaliers are 2-12, and should be focusing on acquiring the best potential pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Due to a trade with the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland will have a pick in the upcoming draft if the pick is in the top 10, but only in that range. With the way the season looks from here on out, it’s a safe bet that Cleveland will fit that criteria.
Regardless, losing LeBron still hurts, and what’s even worse is that, as the aforementioned Conway noted from Vardon’s report, “James said he believed owner Dan Gilbert ordered the young GM to complete the trade.”
Given how James and Gilbert’s relationship over the years has not been exactly outstanding, that theory by James would be a tough pill to swallow if it is indeed true regarding Gilbert strong-arming the young GM in Altman, who had just taken over with past general manager David Griffin (who was one of the best GM’s in the NBA) not having his contract renewed by Gilbert.
Seeing LeBron play in Quicken Loans Arena again will provide highlight moments, but knowing that potentially Irving and James could still be in the Wine and Gold will always hurt, considering Cleveland could have handled the Irving trade request so much better.
If they didn’t put Altman in such a tough situation right away in his GM tenure by simply keeping Griffin, who had engineered most of the roster composition, maybe Cleveland still is at the top of the Eastern Conference with James and Irving’s playmaking leading the way. We’ll never know.