It has been several months since the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to move All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving after his trade request became public.
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, head coach Tyronn Lue had made an internal push to keep Irving despite his desire to play elsewhere.
His coach, Tyronn Lue, advised they hold onto Irving, just like the Los Angeles Lakers did when Lue’s former teammate Bryant demanded a trade.
“We wanted to figure out, is this real?” Altman says. “Is Kyrie someone we might want to bring back and say, ‘Hey, look, players have figured it out in the past. You’re going to figure it out. We’re going to still be really good, we’re going to be winning games, so it’s not going to be all awful.’ You know what I mean? So thinking about the parameters of that, the implications of that was something we were also always debating.”
It was a difficult situation from all sides that could become quite troublesome with Irving’s demand to be moved to another team. This had the potential to be a huge distraction with their being an internal disconnect from Irving with the rest of the team, in particular, toward LeBron James.
That said, Lue likely felt that things could be fixed within time behind the team winning games and a possibly larger shift toward Irving taking more offensive responsibility on the court. It was something that general manager Koby Altman put much thought into that ultimately led him to make a move that he believes was best for both sides.
Irving was able to get what he desired in leading the Boston Celtics as the unquestioned leading scorer. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers have gotten in return a couple of key pieces to the puzzle that included All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas, who is set to make his season debut on Tuesday night.
