It's time for the Cavs to trade the selfish Kyrie Irving
Opinion by Tim Shirer
At the beginning of the NBA season I as well as many other in Cleveland believed that the Cavaliers would be a much better team in 2013-14 than they had been the last three seasons, when they had only won 64 games combined. Well myself and everyone else that thought like I did was very, very wrong.
So the ax fell on Thursday when Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert fired Chris Grant as General Manager. After Wednesday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in very, disturbing and embarrassing fashion anyone who follows the Cavaliers knew something was going to give on Thursday and it was Grant losing his job.
Did Grant deserve to lose his job? I have to say yes. Did he have the deck stacked against him for most of the three and a half years he held the job? Yes he did.
But I am noticing a very disturbing pattern with Dan Gilbert’s team. A pattern that I thought would never occur again after the decision in 2010. Dan Gilbert seems once again to be letting one player run his organization, this time it’s Kyrie Irving.
When this behavior happened the first time, the Cavalier had only three things in common with this current pattern. 1. Mike Brown was coach, 2. Dan Gilbert owned the team and 3. Anderson Varajao played on the team. But the most important thing that happened on that team and happened a lot was they won games. Was it all because of the three things above, no it wasn’t it was in large part due to the superstar from Akron who played for the Cavaliers from 2003 to 2010.
The Cavaliers did a lot of winning in the time that so a lot of behavior by the Akron product was ignored. He basically ran the team and they won, they got to The Finals.
The current pattern of the same behavior by Irving is producing the exact opposite results. The Cavaliers are nowhere near being a playoff team right now. In fact they may at this moment be more of a disaster than the Cleveland Browns.
Therefore with all of that being said, there is only one thing to do and that is trade Kyrie Irving. That’s right trade him. Get rid of him and his, I am the greatest thing the NBA has ever seen attitude.
I don’t like to think every player who plays for Cleveland teams will leave when they are a free agent. That is a defeatist attitude and I hate a defeatist attitude. But in this case, I don’t think there is any way when Irving gets his first chance to leave that he will even consider staying with the Cavaliers.
At this point his value is still sky high, for reasons that might fit some teams but they do not fit the Cavaliers needs or the fan’s needs. Because up to this point Irving has been one thing in the NBA in my opinion and that is a loser, with a capital L. You might say that is being harsh, well I don’t think it is. You might say he’s young, well there have been other players in his position and they took the leadership role and ran with it. Kevin Durant is a perfect example. But Irving is no Kevin Durant. Irving is light years away from being Kevin Durant in every NBA way possible.
When they drafted Irving I was like everyone else I hoped he would work out and lead the Cavaliers back to being a part of the playoff picture in the NBA. He hasn’t and the reason is simple and can be summed up in one word, SELFISH.
It is not working here with Irving and a trade right now is the ONLY option. Right now the Cavaliers could get some good value to help in the future. I know these are usually tough decisions and it’s very rare that a team would trade the league’s overall number one pick in his third season, but in this case the decision isn’t tough, it’s easy.
So my advice to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and the rest of the front office, rid yourself of the selfish Irving and let’s get back to a winning culture, it’s been long enough.
POSTED 02/07/2014 13:15
Lake County Sentinel
