The NBA's Smallest Star Casts Its Largest Shadow (IT article)

[RLewis35]

https://www.si.com/nba/2017/10/11/isaiah-thomas-cavs-celtics-trade-kyrie-irving-hip-injury-lebron-james

Excellent article, and I feel terrible for IT.  Kyrie better be a top 5-10 player (or IT hip worse than projected), or else Danny made a big mistake.

I've been excited about the Kyrie addition but do worry that we lost a lot of the heart and soul that made us...and if IT is IT then I just don't see how this trade makes sense unless Kyrie is second team all NBA at least.

[manl_lui]

I thought Danny did do IT dirty and still feel that way, but I would still do that deal 10/10 times

given Irving's age / height / salary right now for 2 more years vs

IT's age / height / salary he wants

I feel it's a better trade down the road.

[stb]

https://sports.yahoo.com/isaiah-thomas-might-never-talk-140045003.html

[RLewis35]

I thought Danny did do IT dirty and still feel that way, but I would still do that deal 10/10 times

given Irving's age / height / salary right now for 2 more years vs

IT's age / height / salary he wants

I feel it's a better trade down the road.

I know you're right - way more risk on the Cleveland side - IT hip, needing to max him out, and Brooklyn pick may not be a star.  It's the kind of risk they were smart to take to try to keep LBJ (and/or get a title out of him this year), but also prob the kind of move we needed to make to cash in and go for it.  That said, if IT is healthy this year, I think we may be worse off against Cleveland than we otherwise would have been...but hopefully just for one year.

[Roy H.]

I love IT and will always root for him. The man potentially cost himself millions of dollars playing through injury.  It's said too often, but he truly "bled green".

[PhoSita]

Excellent article, and I feel terrible for IT.  Kyrie better be a top 5-10 player (or IT hip worse than projected), or else Danny made a big mistake.

This is basically how I feel about it.


The trade was a Satanic ritual wherein Danny Ainge ripped the heart out of a likable team and sacrificed it to a demon in return for dark power.

If the demon strength the Celts have gained by way of that ritual leads them to sit atop the East for the next 5-10 years with multiple Finals appearances, so be it.

If the results aren't quite that lofty, well ... the Celts just have a lot of gore on them and a faint stench of fire and brimstone.

[Rosco917]

No doubt IT has a heart as big as all outdoors and developed beyond anyone's expectations, but this is a business, it's about winning an NBA title. It's about substance, not symbolism.

IT is a millionaire many times over, he'll be just fine.

I hope his hip injury comes back 100%, but I fear it will rear its ugly head in the future.

You never know, maybe the C's would be interested in him as a 6th man free-agent, for half the Brinks Truck.

 

[beantownboy171]

It's understandable that the trade still doesn't make sense to IT. It was an extremely shrude move on DA's part. I actually think IT has been pretty gracious about the whole thing.

However, I disagree that we'll come to regret making this deal.

The fact has always been that we've been dealing with an overflow of young players and acquisitions. If we hadn't tended to that those assets would have spilled out of our cup and into the lap of another team.

Btw, i'm sure as a players hate the term asset. Obviously these are people we're talking about. But it's a descriptive term that illustrates what goes into decision making when you're a general manager.

And of course we haven't solve this problem for good. We still anticipate having 5 1st round picks over the next two years.

It was becoming apparent that IT might be limited this year and in the future due to injury, that Crowder was falling further down the depth chart and that Zizic did not fit a BS system and never would. It's also beginning to appear that the Nets pick may not be as valuable as once thought.

[PhoSita]

No doubt IT has a heart as big as all outdoors and developed beyond anyone's expectations, but this is a business, it's about winning an NBA title.
 

It's pretty unlikely the Celts are winning a title anytime soon whether or not they make that trade.

So the question is, if all it ends up doing is raising the ceiling in any given season for the next 3-5 years by 5 wins or so, was it worth completely wiping out the core of a likable, successful team?


If this hip injury is as bad as it sounds like it could be and Isaiah is never the same, while Kyrie continues to be a perennial All-Star and compete for All-NBA honors for the next half decade, it's a no-brainer, great trade.

If, on the other hand, Isaiah returns to his 25-30 ppg form and plays at or near that level for another 3-5 years, while the Celts fail to take a leap beyond the level they reached last year, it's a fair question whether the trade was worth it.

[DooVoo]

No doubt IT has a heart as big as all outdoors and developed beyond anyone's expectations, but this is a business, it's about winning an NBA title.
 

It's pretty unlikely the Celts are winning a title anytime soon whether or not they make that trade.

So the question is, if all it ends up doing is raising the ceiling in any given season for the next 3-5 years by 5 wins or so, was it worth completely wiping out the core of a likable, successful team?


If this hip injury is as bad as it sounds like it could be and Isaiah is never the same, while Kyrie continues to be a perennial All-Star and compete for All-NBA honors for the next half decade, it's a no-brainer, great trade.

If, on the other hand, Isaiah returns to his 25-30 ppg form and plays at or near that level for another 3-5 years, while the Celts fail to take a leap beyond the level they reached last year, it's a fair question whether the trade was worth it.

It is pretty clear that IT wasn't going to get paid here. He was going to miss a good chunk of the season. And with his injury there is a lot of concern he will never be the same player or will get hurt again. Those are all things Ainge knew when he made the trade. So it wasn't just about championships. The Celtics whole year would be waiting and praying on IT. So we could have been looking at a lost season. We still weren't paying a 5'9" player with a bad hip. Then the Brooklyn Nets pic is in the #4 -#9 range which is very possible given they are expected to be better this year. Ainge would have been raked over the coals.

You are too hung up on the likable part. Fans are already liking what they are seeing with this group. Kyrie looks as advertised and the Celtics play an exciting easy to watch style of basketball with tons of attractive ball movement. What IT will learn is that fans root for the jersey and not the player. And that the new people will be just as likable. The core that left won nothing here. Ainge hopes the core he built has a much better chance.