If IT4 Was 100% Healthy, Would DA Have Kept Him For LONG Haul?

[Phantom255x]

AND ANOTHER TWIST: Kyrie was NEVER made available in trade talks? Would Ainge keep IT4 long term then?

Lets say Isaiah played the entire ECF and C's lost in 5, but IT was healthy all throughout and was still 100% healthy now.

Seems to me like the hip issues and the likely long term effects of it (possibly even "career threatening", yikes) really pushed Ainge to make this deal, to the point where he even overpaid a bit to ensure he would get back Kyrie Irving.

Ainge acknowledged this was NEVER an easy move and also acknowledged that the hip injury PLAYED A PART in making this deal.

Yeah, Kyrie may be a better playoff performer, but IT had the superior overall season last year, lets be honest. IT is also a more proven alpha than Kyrie.

What do you guys think?

(Yeah yeah, maybe it's "beating a dead horse", but it's an interesting thing to ponder while we wait for C's basketball to return. Ainge couldn't have imagined that Kyrie would become available, but in that case, what would have been the long term plan? Play Isaiah 2nd half this year, then what? Re-sign?).

[Roy H.]

If IT was 100% healthy, Danny should have built around him regardless of Kyrie's availability.

[Phantom255x]

If IT was 100% healthy, Danny should have built around him regardless of Kyrie's availability.

Yep. This Right Here.

[ssspence]

No. Ainge would never have paid the money Isaiah wanted, despite his heart. He's a high usage guy who is not equipped to own and run the table in the playoffs.

Like everyone else, I love the dude and I'll root for him next summer when he's done in CLE. But if the guy ever alphas a team to championship in his life, pigs'll fly.

[mctyson]

What do you guys think?

I didn't vote because I think you need a "maybe" category.

I posted this earlier but if you think about what has happened the past 2 seasons and off-seasons, there are so many different iterations that have IT still here or IT leaving, not to mention other players.

If we had signed Durant?  IT is still here.  If we traded for Paul George? IT is still here.  Butler?  IT is here.  And that's not even touching on his health.

The huge difference with Kyrie is that he is also a PG.  I eventually accepted the trade in the context that it signaled to me - especially given the hip issue - that IT was not going to be re-signed.  Maybe that is indeed true, but what if he was traded simply because we got a younger version of him [at least in terms of basketball productivity] back?

I know Danny will not re-sign guards with lower leg injuries, severe or chronic.  However if things unfolded a different way, maybe he would have.  You need another option on the poll.

[Roy H.]

No. Ainge would never have paid the money Isaiah wanted, despite his heart. He's a high usage guy who is not equipped to own and run the table in the playoffs.

Like everyone else, I love the dude and I'll root for him next summer when he's done in CLE. But if the guy ever alphas a team to championship in his life, pigs'll fly.

He alpha'd his way to the ECF despite having no other all-stars on his team. That's more than almost every PG can say.

[ssspence]

If IT was 100% healthy, Danny should have built around him regardless of Kyrie's availability.

Yep. This Right Here.

Y'all are choosing loyalty over banners -- even in the hypothetical, which makes it a little worse. Don't forget it.

[Phantom255x]

No. Ainge would never have paid the money Isaiah wanted, despite his heart. He's a high usage guy who is not equipped to own and run the table in the playoffs.

Like everyone else, I love the dude and I'll root for him next summer when he's done in CLE. But if the guy ever alphas a team to championship in his life, pigs'll fly.

You could literally say the same thing about Kyrie lol.

[Roy H.]

If IT was 100% healthy, Danny should have built around him regardless of Kyrie's availability.

Yep. This Right Here.

Y'all are choosing loyalty over banners -- even in the hypothetical, which makes it a little worse. Don't forget it.

Healthy IT > Kyrie

Healthy IT + Crowder + Zizic + BRK #1 >>> Kyrie

Don't forget it.

[Roy H.]

No. Ainge would never have paid the money Isaiah wanted, despite his heart. He's a high usage guy who is not equipped to own and run the table in the playoffs.

Like everyone else, I love the dude and I'll root for him next summer when he's done in CLE. But if the guy ever alphas a team to championship in his life, pigs'll fly.

You could literally say the same thing about Kyrie lol.

Except for maybe the heart thing.

[ssspence]

No. Ainge would never have paid the money Isaiah wanted, despite his heart. He's a high usage guy who is not equipped to own and run the table in the playoffs.

Like everyone else, I love the dude and I'll root for him next summer when he's done in CLE. But if the guy ever alphas a team to championship in his life, pigs'll fly.

You could literally say the same thing about Kyrie lol.

I don't agree amongst a variety of factors that have been annoyingly beaten to death already here before Kyrie plays a game I green -- but you're cutting onions about IT right now, as evidenced by this thread, so no point in a debate.

[ssspence]

No. Ainge would never have paid the money Isaiah wanted, despite his heart. He's a high usage guy who is not equipped to own and run the table in the playoffs.

Like everyone else, I love the dude and I'll root for him next summer when he's done in CLE. But if the guy ever alphas a team to championship in his life, pigs'll fly.

You could literally say the same thing about Kyrie lol.

Except for maybe the heart thing.

[Edited.]

[ssspence]

If IT was 100% healthy, Danny should have built around him regardless of Kyrie's availability.

Yep. This Right Here.

Y'all are choosing loyalty over banners -- even in the hypothetical, which makes it a little worse. Don't forget it.

Healthy IT > Kyrie

Healthy IT + Crowder + Zizic + BRK #1 >>> Kyrie

Don't forget it.

We know your option about the trade. It's not the topic raised in this thread. It's debating whether the GM of the Cs would have kept and paid IT if he was healthy. I don't think so.

[Roy H.]

If IT was 100% healthy, Danny should have built around him regardless of Kyrie's availability.

Yep. This Right Here.

Y'all are choosing loyalty over banners -- even in the hypothetical, which makes it a little worse. Don't forget it.

Healthy IT > Kyrie

Healthy IT + Crowder + Zizic + BRK #1 >>> Kyrie

Don't forget it.

We know your option about the trade. It's not the topic raised in this thread. It's debating whether the GM of the Cs would have kept and paid IT if he was healthy. I don't think so.

Sure it's the topic of this thread.

If IT was healthy, Danny wouldn't have traded a better player plus a starter, a prospect and a coveted pick for a celebrity point guard.

[Eja117]

I highly doubt Ainge would have paid a highly coveted pick, decent prospect, and one of the best contracts in the league, for some sort of sideways move.

He would have kept that for an Anthony Davis trade or something like that.