Kyrie Irving is unhappy in his role with the Cleveland Cavaliers and, in a perfect world, he would be traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat, New York Knicks or San Antonio Spurs before the 2017-18 season.
Of course, the Cavs are not obligated to trade Kyrie, who is under contract until 2020, and they certainly are not forced to cater to his lofty trade demands. Considering the way this offseason has played out, Cleveland is going to listen to all potential suitors to see what the best value for Kyrie is.
One team outside of Kyrie's top-four preferred destinations that has reportedly been in talks with the Cavs is the Phoenix Suns.
Former Cavs forward, James Jones, was hired as the VP of basketball operations by Phoenix this Summer and he has firsthand experience of what Kyrie Irving can be like behind the scenes, which reportedly includes going days without talking to his teammates during their playoff run.
On Thursday's episode of the BBall Breakdown podcast, ESPN's Dave McMenamin said, per Sportando,
“Phoenix, of course, hired James Jones this offseason. He’s been inside that locker room. He’s seen Kyrie Irving — I think I reported this on SportsCenter this week — he saw Kyrie Irving in the playoffs this year — in between the first round when they beat Indiana and the second round when they played Toronto — go consecutive days without speaking to a teammate at practice. On that stage. It’s one thing to say people go through ups and downs during the regular season. But when you get to the playoffs, when the main thing is the main thing, and we’re brothers and pulling together to get this thing done, even at that level there were still things that made him sullen or reclusive from his teammates. I’m not so sure if Phoenix would be interested in that type of deal.”
You can listen to the full episode of the BBall Breakdown podcast here.