The Cleveland Cavaliers can relate to the situation the Miami Heat are going through right now.
The Heat -- and perhaps most specifically, Team President Pat Riley -- are locked into a war on and off the court with their star wing Jimmy Butler. The mercurial Butler wanted a maximum contract extension, the Heat wouldn't give it to him, and things have boiled until they overflowed in the past few weeks.
The worst of it came Friday, when a formal trade request from Butler triggered a seven-game suspension from the Heat for "conduct detrimental to the team" and an announcement that Miami would now be listening to any and all trade offers for Butler. No matter how it ends, it's hard to see it ending positively for the Heat.
Fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves have seen this video before, when Butler went nuclear and forced his way out of Minnesota and to the Philadelphia 76ers. Yet fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers may also feel like they have seen this situation before -- but with a different player.
The Kyrie Irving trade demand had some parallels
In the summer of 2017, the Cleveland Cavaliers were coming off of their third consecutive trip to the NBA Finals. After losing a short-handed series to the Golden State Warriors in 2015, and coming back to beat those same Warriors in 2016, the best team the Cavaliers had during that stretch was the 2017 team, but they were clobbered in the Finals 4-1 by Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and company.
The team appeared ready to take another crack at a second title together that summer, but then Kyrie Irving shocked fans and perhaps teammates when he went to the front office and demanded a trade. There have been a number of theories as to why he did so -- wanting the full spotlight, growing tired of LeBron's leadership style, seeing the writing on the wall for LeBron's time in Cleveland -- but whatever the season, Kyrie told the front office to trade him, or else.
Because it was resolved it may seem like the process was amicable, but it was far from it. Irving broke up an NBA Finals team and threatened to get back surgery and miss most of the following season, leveraging the team's need to maintain a contender around LeBron. It's not hard to picture things playing out similarly to how Jimmy Butler is razing things to the ground in Miami.
The difference? Irving's trade demand came during the offseason. There were no games going on for him to pout his way through, no suspensions necessary, no awkward postgame press conferences. Cleveland had the space to think through their options and shop around for a deal.
They ultimately found that deal, a trade with the Boston Celtics that probably both teams regret. The Cavaliers felt forced into making the trade even when they discovered the extent of Isaiah Thomas's injury situation, and the one-time All-Star guard was not able to contribute to the Cavs' Eastern Conference title defense that next season.
For the Celtics, they got the unpredictable Irving on their roster and rode the ups and downs he brought until he walked in free agency. Similarly to Butler, Irving has continued to live out that unpredictability at other stops, including some head-to-head showdowns with the Brooklyn Nets where Irving was also suspended for an extended period of time by his team.
The Cavaliers did make the 2018 NBA Finals after a couple of midseason trades and because LeBron James was the greatest player on the planet, but they were swept by the Warriors and James was wearing Lakers gold shortly thereafter. If Irving had stayed and found a way to work with LeBron, it's possible the Cavs have another trophy on their shelf.
The one thing that the Cavaliers can be thankful for was that this drama played out in the offseason; the final trade may not have worked out, but at least individual games were not torpedoed by the chaos. Not like the Miami Heat, who just lost by 36 to the tanking Utah Jazz in Miami in the first game of Butler's suspension.
The Heat are not a contender this season, and Butler is significantly older than Irving was in 2017, so their decision tree looks very different. Even so, as the organization tries to find a solution and fans groan watching each new development, the Cavaliers can empathize. They have been there before.