Only dumpster organizations are completely blindsided by players leaving in free agency. There are signs, and they're usually a mile long. If your star leaves in free agency, you weren't paying attention, or you knew it but decided to roll the dice.
Can anyone here explain to me why they think that Kyrie is going to leave?
- The team is amazing, but he's still the guy
- He'll get a larger contract
- He has a great coach and FO
- There are no prima donnas on the roster
Someone please show me 1 concrete piece of evidence that points to him not staying next year.
There's nothing concrete, but he's been flimsy when asked, not showing any real commitment to the team. Not showing up for G7 was a bad look, in spite of the explanation. He's already forced a trade once because he didn't want to play with LBJ which is, in itself, strange. He's in love with this player empowerment, being able to control your destination, as he said on the recent podcast.
Like I said, nothing concrete, but he doesn't come across as a person who values loyalty, longevity, Celtics tradition, or his legacy as a Celtic. He values being great at basketball and using his value to retain a semblance of control, paraphrasing him. So people hedge towards moving him, rather than letting him walk.
Forcing a trade to not want to play with LeBron James is not strange at all. When your team's playbook is "get LeBron the ball," I can see how it can be boring to someone who is not a role player... and he forced a trade. He didn't leave for nothing. That means that he has at least 1 data point that suggests that if he's unhappy, he makes it known. Since we're guessing at his MO, it seems to me that he's the kind of player to take max money at each stage and force a trade if he's unhappy. In that case, even if you think he's not a loyal person (not sure where you're getting that from), if we sign him and then he later wants a trade, he's still an asset that can get stuff back. Either way, The NBA is a business. He's not going to get a tattoo of the Celtics because just like he could eventually be unhappy here, Ainge could trade him. So when reporters ask him stupid questions like "are you going to take a contract extension and leave millions of dollars on the table for no reason," don't be surprised that he gives a business oriented response. In the age of instant media, if there were a problem, you'd know. There is no problem... this is just clickbait, or fake news.
LeBron is the guy you described. He won't request a trade because he doesn't want to gut his future team. He'll just leave you for nothing.