NBA Trade Grades: Cavaliers trade Kyrie Irving to Celtics for big haul

Boston Celtics

After all the superstar names that have come up over the last few months, giving up a Godfather package for Kyrie Irving has to feel a bit underwhelming for Boston Celtics fans.

Yes, Kyrie Irving is younger and probably better than Isaiah Thomas right now. Yes, he’s on a more team-friendly contract, he’s less of a defensive liability than IT and according to Woj, the Celtics made this move believing that he will re-sign with the team when he hits free agency in 2019:

However, even if the 25-year-old is ready to break out as “the guy” on a new team, the Celtics just had to surrender quite a hefty package to get him. There’s also no guarantee that Irving even reaches those new highs after playing zero defense and displaying very little leadership on a contending roster that was ideally tailored for his talents.

To be fair, a possible starting five of Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Morris and Al Horford sounds great on paper, especially with promising youngsters like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Terry Rozier and Guerschon Yabusele backing them up.

There’s also no question Kyrie is currently more valuable than IT. Even if you consider the two to be even across the board, Irving is younger and just put up 25.2 points, 5.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game on .473/.401/.905 shooting splits. He’s only going to get better, especially if he commits to the defensive end a bit more.

However, this team’s biggest weaknesses — defense and rebounding — were not addressed in the Gordon Hayward signing, the Kyrie Irving trade or at any point this offseason. They will still face those same problems in the playoffs, especially with Zizic and Crowder gone.

Trading IT makes sense since Danny Ainge didn’t want to invest $200 million in a 29-year-old point guard entering the 2017-18 season with a hip injury, but losing a fan favorite like that hurts, especially with one of the team’s best wing defenders and most positionally versatile players like Crowder leaving too.

Including the Nets’ pick, which could be an unprotected top-three pick, is just the final nail in the coffin. Would it have been better to make this trade for Kyrie and draft Jayson Tatum, or simply draft Markelle Fultz at No. 1, sign Hayward and keep Crowder, IT, Zizic and a likely top-five pick in next year’s draft class that’s supposedly loaded at the top?

Even better, they could have traded something similar for more years of a better player in Jimmy Butler, kept IT and signed Hayward.

That sounds a lot better than giving up one of the team’s most valuable future assets like the Brooklyn pick to trade for a younger version of IT…all while also losing considerable depth and experience this summer between Thomas, Crowder, Avery Bradley, Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk.

Only time will tell which group is more valuable, but if Kyrie Irving is unable to rise to the bell and prove himself as a legitimate franchise player in a way he couldn’t during his younger seasons with the Cavaliers, this trade could look extremely shortsighted a few years from now.

Here’s hoping this goes well and Boston advances to the Finals at some point in the next two years, because if it doesn’t, it could be a lot to surrender for a two-year rental.

The Celtics have a stacked starting five, plenty of future draft picks to fall back on and still retained most of their youth while avoiding overpaying for Thomas next summer. But it also cost them one of the best point guards in the league, an undervalued 3-and-D wing, a promising young power forward and a shot at a potential franchise player to pair with the team’s younger core.

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Kyrie Irving has quite a lot to prove bearing all this in mind, and though “NBA Finals or bust” isn’t quite fair given his youth, in the context of this trade, falling short to the Cavaliers in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals would only make the loss of these departing pieces sting even more.

Grade: C-