Kyrie Irving is putting even more pressure on the Celtics by showing how dysfunctional the Cavaliers are right now
It has been almost a decade since LeBron James could be considered anything close to an underdog. James has so thoroughly dominated the Eastern Conference that being considered the favorite has been taken for granted.
Losing Kyrie Irving may not completely sway the odds makers, but that puts the Celtics in a position where they have to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics now have the added pressure of knowing that is the best opportunity they will ever get to ending James reign, potentially sending him out West with the rest of the supreme talent in the league.
The Celtics finally got the talent they needed by adding Al Horford and Gordon Hayward. Now, the Cavaliers may both be losing talent, and losing the sense of invulnerability in the East.
The Cavaliers are in trouble, and the culmination of this core for the Celtics is coming right when everything could be breaking down for the Cavaliers. The opportunity could not have lined up better, but that means the Celtics have fully shed any kind of underdog title, with expectations to make the finals for the first time in the Brad Stevens era.
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What this does to the Celtics is it forces them to figure things out quickly. They had a massive turnover of their roster, and there are a lot of pieces that need to get comfortable. Stevens needs to make sure he finds the ideal lineups right away, and does not allow the Cavaliers to get that confidence back and put all this distress behind them.
The good news is that the Cavaliers have never been as good in the regular season, so the Celtics have some room to work with. That being said, they need to prove that they are not the standard in the Eastern Conference, and that James will have to try something new to get back to his unprecedented dominance.
Even if Irving is traded, this will not be easy. No James team in his career has been a pushover, and if things do not work out well for the Celtics, they could be in line for their first real disappointment of the Stevens era.
For the first time since the rebuild started, the real pressure is on the Celtics. Last season, not making the finals was not an indictment of this team. This year, the same cannot be said. With what the Cavaliers are going through, and all the improvements the Celtics have made, this is team that needs to make the finals, and that is asking quite a bit for a roster that is 60 percent different from a season ago.
The Celtics are entering a new phase of this rebuild and it is unfamiliar territory. So much time has been spent talking about the lovable underdogs, and the only way they can get back to that is if they are facing off against the Warriors in the NBA Finals. Anything less, and it will be time to legitimately question if this core will ever get past James, and have a real shot at a title.
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The Celtics know this and realize this, and now they need to prove that the additional pressure will not change who they are as a team.