Cleveland Cavaliers: Could Kyrie Irving Be Traded?

There are many question marks surrounding the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offseason that is coming up in the near future. The team completely underwhelmed people this season, and it doesn’t appear that there is any clear direction looking forward. Kyrie Irving has been mentioned in quite a few rumors about wanting out of Cleveland, but has publicly denied those rumors. Despite his denial of the rumors, is it possible that the Cavaliers could look to trade Irving this summer?

It certainly doesn’t seem like the best thing to do for the franchise in the long-term view, but it could actually be the right decision as well. The Cavaliers will offer Irving an extension first, but it will certainly prove whether or not he truly wants to stay in Cleveland. If he does end up turning down the extension, the Cavaliers need to begin shopping him in trade talks to see what they can get.

Irving had a very inconsistent season, and disappointed many fans in Cleveland. He was unable to take his game to the next level and actually decreased his scoring without making much of a jump in his assist category. The Cavaliers believe that Irving will take his game to the next level at some point in the near future, but if they’re offered a deal that can net them multiple pieces to build on they would have to pull the trigger.

According to people inside Irving’s camp, he has never wanted to play in Cleveland and isn’t happy with the situation. He has already gotten one GM fired and could very well get head coach Mike Brown fired as well. Despite denying those reports, they continue to come out of sources very close to him and his camp. It doesn’t make much sense that there is no truth to the reports about his unhappiness when those close to him continue to insist that it is indeed the case.

Perhaps one of the worst signs for the Cavaliers this past season has been the obvious animosity between Irving and Dion Waiters. Waiters has also been a key piece to the Cavaliers, and Cleveland would like for the two of them to get along. They would rather keep Irving if it came down to picking between one or the other, and actually looked into trading him at the trading deadline this past year.

Irving has played in and started 67 games this season with the Cavaliers, averaging 21.3 points, 6.3 assists, and 3.7 rebounds per game. He is shooting just 43 percent from the floor this season, which is down from last year’s numbers. His 3-point percentage has also dropped in a major way from 39.1 percent to 36.7 percent this season. Looking at Irving’s statistics show a drop in nearly everything of note, outside of a slight increase in assists and a drop in turnovers as well.

Overall, the Cavaliers will have a lot of big decisions to make this coming offseason. All of this talk would go away if Irving did accept a contract extension, but that likely won’t be the case. Cleveland Cavaliers fans are in for a long offseason, and hopefully things end better than the last time they were going through something like this with a superstar.

Evan Massey is a Staff Writer for HoopsHabit.com. Follow Evan on Twitter at @Massey_Evan.