Former Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving — who’s more than three years removed from wearing Cs green but has been intrinsically linked to his old team since then with two postseason series against his former team — is on the market via a trade demand, his second in the last year.
Irving is almost certainly a goner after Brooklyn Nets management insulted his representation with an extension offer that featured incentives he can only reach if the franchise wins an NBA Finals over the length of a deal. The non-guarantee was a break of trust that is seemingly leading towards another trade to end another tenure gone bad in Irving’s career.
MassLive’s Souichi Terada came up with the perfect deal that would send Irving to one of his preferred destinations from his 2017 landing spot list, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and keep the Nets competitive in the meantime:
Brooklyn would stay competitive with a replacement No. 2 option, D’Angelo Russell, back in the fold after his two-season stint from 2017-2019. They’d also add a potential starter in Jaden McDaniels and add depth to their frontcourt with Naz Reid.
Minnesota would look to make good on the win-now team President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly has begun building with the Rudy Gobert trade by landing a top talent like Irving. With a healthy Karl-Anthony Towns and an ever-improving Anthony Edwards, Irving might be the necessary final piece to elevate the Timberwolves to the highest tier.
The Boston Celtics have been better off without Kyrie Irving
There have been three and a half seasons post-Kyrie in Boston. In just one of those seasons did the Celtics look like a team with possible regrets letting him go. In 2022, the Celtics reached the Finals, and in 2020 they reached the conference finals. Irving hasn’t done either since bolting Boston for less greener pastures.
This trade request is merely another in a long sense of PR nightmares for Irving, something Boston has had enough of just from their last coach. Both parties are better off having moved on, but the Cs really dodged a bullet in retrospect.