In Boston, it is taken as gospel that Kyrie Irving will be returning to the Celtics for the next five years under a supermax $188 million extension. In other parts of the NBA universe, the world isn’t quite that round.
Kyrie and anyone who follows him on Instagram will get that joke.
For the uninformed, Irving went on a podcast with former teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye and offered a wide range of, ahem, opinions, including that the earth is flat — an assertion he later backed off via an Instagram post.
Most recently, he upset many in the Boston red baseball hat community by saying in no uncertain terms that he does not celebrate Thanksgiving because of his native American heritage.
Kyrie Irving, who is part Native American through his late mother, isn’t a fan of tomorrow’s national holiday. “I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving…Fuck Thanksgiving.”
— Mark Murphy (@Murf56) November 22, 2018
He later backed off, because people who get paid to make him back off got him to back off.
Whatever the case, this past weekend ended with the Celtics sitting at 10-10 and tied for 6th place in the Eastern Conference with the powerhouse Orlando Magic.
They still have one of the best and deepest rosters in the league, but we are almost at the quarter-pole of the NBA season and they have suffered losses to the Knicks and Jazz by 12 apiece, the Hornets by five and the Mavericks by nine in losing four of their past five games last week.
In the standings, they are looking up at the Raptors, Bucks, Sixers, Pistons and Pacers, and sitting within a game of them are the Hornets. We could have 10 teams competing for playoff spots if the Heat and Wizards can get their acts together, and it just wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Trading Irving now would be a panic move, no doubt. But think ahead two months and what might happen if the mediocrity continues.
Three of the Celtics’ next four games are on the road against good Western Conference teams, and they have a grueling stretch of seven games in 10 nights from Dec. 6-15 before a four-game homestand concludes with their Christmas afternoon showdown with the Philadelphia 76ers — a team they tore up in the playoffs last season with Irving sidelined and Terry Rozier running the show.
So if you are Danny Ainge, ask yourself this: Do I want to pay a guy $35 million per season to stick around for the next 5 1/2 seasons until he retires early, or do I want to throw a ton of my assets into a wheelbarrow and push them over to Dell Demps’ place in New Orleans, where Anthony Davis’ level of satisfaction will be dictated by where the Pelicans are sitting in the standings (they are currently 10-10 in a conference that is shaping up at this point as a 15-team race for eight playoff spots. Everyone except the Phoenix Suns is in contention, and the Los Angeles Clippers, of all teams, are currently in first place.
The so-called Derrick Rose rule, along with other NBA collective bargaining rules, would prevent the Celtics from having Irving and Davis on their roster at the same time prior to next summer, when more than half of all NBA players will be free agents. So it is impossible at the present time to put anything together that would include Davis and Irving playing for the Celtics at the same time.
In order for Ainge to get Davis (his dream since Davis entered the NBA) this season, Irving would have to go. And since New Orleans is not a long-term option for Irving, a third or fourth team would have to be included to make everyone happy. Sources around the league told Get More Sports on Monday that no Irving deals are currently being discussed.
The Sacramento Kings can still facilitate just about anything anyone wants if their needs are met, as they are still sitting on $12 million in cap space and $37 million in expiring contracts, and the price of that cap space only goes up as each passing day goes by and we move closer to the February trade deadline.
So Celtics fans can take a deep breath and relax heading into tonight’s game, even with Jaylen Brown sitting out.
Boston opened as a 1-point favorite, but the line has swung three points since then, with New Orleans favored by two. The over/under has risen 3 points to 228.
Loyal readers know that this author likes to highlight prop bets, and these are the ones that are on the board tonight that you may want to wager on:
- Kyrie Irving: Points O/U is 26.5. Assists O/U is 6.5. Total points, assists, and rebounds: 35.5.
- Jrue Holiday: Points O/U is 19.5. Assists O/U is 8.5. Total points, assists and rebounds is 32.5.
- Nikola Mirotic and Jayson Tatum: Points O/U: 19.5
Enjoy the game tonight.
Danny Ainge certainly will.
FROM SUNDAY: TRADE MARKET FOR MARKELLE FULTZ IS DEAD … FOR NOW
