Are Cavaliers Struggling to Trade Kyrie Irving?
Almost a month after he demanded a trade, Kyrie Irving remains a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Moving Irving, the all-star point guard, was always likely to be a delicate process for the Cavaliers. The 25-year-old should command a huge return, likely a combination of draft picks and a star forward to help out LeBron James and Kevin Love right now. Anything less than a king’s ransom could be seen as a failure for the Cavaliers—and worse, it could upset James.
But finding a team willing to give up the combination of assets that will satisfy the Cavaliers is apparently proving tricky.
The latest report comes from Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com. Wolfson claims the Phoenix Suns want Irving and would be prepared to give up Eric Bledsoe, a first-round draft pick in 2018 or 2019, and the number four overall pick from 2016, Dragan Bender.
The Cavaliers would ideally like the Suns’ rookie Josh Jackson in any deal, but Jackson, the fourth overall pick from the 2017 NBA Draft, doesn’t sound too positive about the likelihood of moving to northeast Ohio. "I think if that [a trade to the Cavaliers] was going to happen, it would have happened by now," Jackson said on Sunday in quotes reported by CBS.
Giving up Jackson for Irving would be a major risk for the Suns if Irving doesn’t resign with the franchise in 2018 and walks away after a year.
Another option for Irving, reported at the start of August, is a trade to the Detroit Pistons. The Detroit Free Press reported “conversations” between the Pistons’ front office and the Cavaliers. Neither the Suns nor the Pistons were on Irving’s reported list of preferred trade options.
The interest in Irving is not the problem. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported at the end of July that “approximately 20 teams” had registered interest in Irving. The issue for those teams is in deciding how much they can risk giving up for Irving, and for the Cavaliers, on the other side of the trade, in being adequately compensated for a perennial all-star and elite scorer.
If no one makes the Cavaliers a satisfactory offer, then the only realistic option is to head into training camp with Irving still a key member of the team, although Cleveland.com reports that Irving will be moved before the season starts. Irving does, however, have two years remaining on his contract. It isn’t completely inconceivable that Irving and James will end up playing together this season, though it would be strange. The process of moving Irving is certainly taking up time that the Cavaliers could use on getting better.
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