When Kyrie Irving requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers last month, there were plenty of teams knocking on the door to see what it would take to land the 25-year old 4x All-Star point guard.
As it turns out, the Cavs opted for a package from the Boston Celtics that includes an All-Star point guard replacement in Isaiah Thomas, a tenacious defender in Jae Crowder, the Brooklyn Nets' unprotected 2018 first round pick, and young center, Ante Zizic. It's unclear exactly what other teams around the league were offering for Kyrie Irving but it's safe to there was no shortage of teams looking to acquire Uncle Drew in the past few weeks.
Before the Cavs agreed to the deal with Boston, they did their due diligence as well, and even reached out to the Golden State Warriors about a potential trade. ESPN's Marc J. Spears says new Cleveland Cavaliers GM, Koby Altman, called the defending champs about potentially swapping Kyrie Irving for Klay Thompson.
Per The Undefeated,
"Altman was extremely focused on the future in making this trade, a source said. This trade may give James much more faith in Altman as a general manager. It would be hard to believe that Altman could have landed a better trade than the Boston one. He did call the uninterested Warriors about Klay Thompson, a source said."
Obviously, the Warriors have no business tinkering with their roster but it is interesting to see that the Cavs left no stones unturned when searching for a trade partner in the Kyrie Irving sweepstakes.
And it all worked out perfectly for the NBA and basketball fans all over the world - we now get to look forward to Kyrie's return to Cleveland as well as Isaiah Thomas' first game against his former team on the NBA's opening night. The Cavs will play host to the Celtics on Thursday, October 17th at 8:00pm, followed by the new-look Rockets vs. the Warriors at Oracle Arena.