Most of the NBA is on vacation right now, but that has not prevented a few intriguing storylines from surfacing over the past week. Let’s take at some of the signings and rumors from around the league and react to them with a bit of a Celtics spin.
Irving wasn’t talking to teammates during playoffs?
We will begin with the latest developments on the Kyrie Irving front. I gave my two cents on the comments by former GM David Griffin earlier this week about Irving having the Celtics on his “list” of ideal trade destinations. Trade rumors about Irving has been relatively quiet in the wake of those remarks, but ESPN.com reporter David McMenamin dropped some new insight about just how much of a disconnect there was between Irving and his teammates during the postseason.
In an appearance on the Bballbreakdown Podcast, McMenamin relayed a conversation he had with former Cavs forward (and current Suns front office member) James Jones about how Irving failed to talk to his teammates for days at a time during Cleveland’s playoff run.
“He saw Kyrie Irving in the playoffs this year,” McMenamin explained, “In between the first round, when they beat Indiana, and the second round, when they played Toronto — he'd go consecutive days without speaking to a teammate at practice.
"On that stage. It's one thing to say people go through their ups and downs in the regular season. But when you get to the playoffs — when the main thing is the main thing, and we're brothers, and we're pulling together to get this thing done — even at that level, there were still things that made him sullen or reclusive from his teammates."
Reaction: You can’t really call this a smear job, especially since Jones is no longer employed by the Cavs. Still, these kind of stories seeing the light of day makes me believe that the Irving situation in Cleveland is not going to find a solution without a trade. If there was that much tension during a playoff run, I can’t imagine how awkward things could be if the Cavs try to enter training camp this year with Irving still on the roster. It certainly could happen, but I don't imagine it ending well for the sides involved. Either way, this is all good news from Boston's perspective, since Irving playing anywhere outside of Cleveland next season (or beyond) should only improve the C’s Eastern Conference title chances.
Carmelo trade rumors back on?
The endless Carmelo Anthony trade saga added a new chapter (approximately #432) on Thursday when Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com indicated the Rockets are once again making a run at the All-Star forward in a three-team trade. The challenge is finding a landing spot for Ryan Anderson’s $20 million per year contract (for next three seasons) since the Knicks understandably don’t want to clog their cap for the future with a bad contract, just to get rid of Anthony.
Reaction: The new salary climate around the NBA is going to make finding any franchise willing to take on Anderson's deal a challenge. He’s still a useful player, but he was already viewed as overpaid last year once he signed that mammoth four-year, $80 million last summer. The power forward is an ideal stretch 4 offensively, be he's a massive liability on the defensive end. Now that future cap projections have started to level out for 2018 and beyond, the only way I can envision Anderson getting moved is to a franchise that isn’t looking to get out of some bad contracts themselves. A few places to keep an eye on as a hypothetical third team with those realities in mind:
- Detroit: Stan Van Gundy coached Anderson for several years in Orlando and they have a number of guys on big contracts (Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond) that were involved in trade talks throughout last season. The Pistons would want more for either of those guys beyond Anderson, but one could be a starting point.
- Orlando: I bet they’d love to move Bismack Biyombo, but that is a worse deal than Anderson’s, so it's doubtful the Knicks would want him..
- Phoenix: They have the contracts to make the money work, but they’re showing more of an emphasis on youth here, which Anderson doesn’t really fit. Also, Brandan Knight’s ACL tear takes a potential name for money matching purposes out of the equation.
- Portland: They’ve reportedly been suitors for Anthony themselves, but they also have a number of useful players on pricy deals (Evan Turner, Mo Harkless, Meyers Leonard). Two of those would help make the money work in a three-team swap.
- Andrew Wiggins is reportedly going to get a max contract extension offer from the Wolves as long as he tells owner GM Glen Taylor gets some promises from him about his desire to improve. A max extension for Wiggins would be worth roughly $148 million over five years and likely take him out of play in any Irving trade talks between Minnesota and Cleveland.
- The Knicks signed forward Michael Beasley to a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum. That’s good value for a guy who will probably get a lot of run at MSG when/if Anthony is moved. He shot a career-high 53.2 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from 3-point range last year in Milwaukee.
- Former Celtics rumored trade target (think 2-3 years ago with the Rajon Rondo trade talks) and current Grizzlies guard Ben McLemore will miss 12 weeks after suffering a foot injury earlier this offseason. Celtics fans don’t have to start paying close attention to the Grizz until next season (C’s own rights to protected 2019 Memphis first round pick) but it doesn’t like the Grizz are headed in the right direction in a loaded Western Conference.