King's Top Knight Wants a Throne

We are alllllll witnesses. This crazy frenzy of a free agency has brought us things we never thought we would see. Prime example, Kyrie Irving requesting a trade from Cleveland about a month ago and reportedly no longer wanted to play little brother to Lebron James. With being a teammate of Lebron James comes all the lights, cameras, deep playoff runs and media attention being both good and bad. Why would someone such as Kyrie, who has been to the past three NBA Finals with Lebron and being a major part in the championship that they won in 2016, want to leave such a situation? In all honesty, it's pretty clear to why he would want to leave. When Kyrie signed his five-year contract in the summer of 2014 he was guaranteed to be the number one guy as he always wanted to be. What he didn't see coming was the self-proclaimed King of Akron coming back home for another chance at getting a ring for his home town just days later that same summer. Now instead of Kyrie having a team being built around himself it's now a team built around The King, his heir to the throne in Kyrie, and newly acquired Kevin Love.

Things in Cleveland started looking rough this past season as Lebron found himself on the wrong side of the media where he was quoted saying that they needed a playmaker. This was said during one of the few little slumps that the Cavs found themselves in last season. Why look for a playmaker when you have a prolific young gifted scorer in Kyrie Irving who can handle the rock and have yourself in the best player in the game that can do just about anything for a team??? Well At 32 Lebron isn't getting any younger and he knows that his greatness will not be championship worthy for too long. The Cavs needed someone other than Lebron that can orchestrate the offense smoothly. One would think the answer is Kyrie Irving but as special as Kyrie is he tends to be very ball dominant. Can you blame the man?? He is a walking ankle breaking bucket at the point guard position. But with all these problems and speculation from the media the Cavs still cruised through the eastern conference playoffs as the duo of Kyrie Irving and Lebron James couldn't be stopped. Wellllll almost couldn't be stopped once they ran into Warriors in the finals for the third year in a row.

The speculation of where the Cavs would deal Kyrie was a mystery to everyone as more and more rumors from both Lebron and Kyrie’s camps were coming out. Nevertheless, the wait was over as it was reported around 7:30 pm yesterday that Kyrie was traded to Boston for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, rookie center Ante Zizic and the Nets 2018 first round pick in 2018. This trade shocked just about everyone as the top two seeds of the eastern conference switched point guards. Now who won this trade?? Well it's probably the closest trade for trade you will probably see. Both Isaiah and Kyrie are ball dominant guards who can score the basketball; Kyrie averaging 25 points per game and Isaiah averaging 29 points per game this past season. First let's look at Boston. With Kyrie under contract for the next two years and Gordon Hayward for the next four, also being surrounded by young talents such as Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, and rising rookie Jayson Tatum the Celtics have a unique opportunity to stay relevant for a long period of time. In relation to short term success it would be interesting to see how all these returning and new players build chemistry as the upcoming season starts.

Now to Cleveland, at the center of it all there's Lebron James. Since coming into the NBA Lebron has found himself in my eyes to be a double-edged sword. With Lebron you have someone that can score the basketball at will when appropriately motivated, pass the ball like a guard, 6’8 260 pounds…you guys should know the rest by now. By having Lebron on your team there are just certain things you lack on your roster because he can make up for those things. You can put him at any position and he can guard any position; he’s like a universal remote. Why I say this is because most of those title contending teams that Lebron has been on had two things in common and that was the fact that they didn't have a reliable enough bench and that the bench was on the old side, excluding the 2 championship years in Miami. At this point in his career with the additions of Isaiah Thomas then Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose, Jeff Green, and Jose Calderon to his somewhat suspect at times bench; it's better than what he's had in a long time. With this deal Cleveland gave themselves a little backup plan in case Lebron decides to take his talents elsewhere in the summer of 2018 as everyone in the NBA world is also looking forward to.

I have them coming out the east once again this year with this new looking roster that Lebron has at his disposal. Kyrie will take full advantage of his new opportunity and propel himself further into superstar status but I doubt it will be enough to beat the king just yet.  Lebron is going to miss what Kyrie brought to the team but being Lebron is what has him in this situation. Being THE GUY on the basketball team, that is what Kyrie ultimately wants and now he’s got something to work with for two years.