Did the Cavaliers miss Kyrie Irving in their NBA Finals series with the Warriors? The obvious answer is yes, they suffered without their onetime All-Star point guard, relegated to using veteran George Hill against the likes of two-time MVP Stephen Curry.
Irving asked for a trade from Cleveland after finding out the Cavaliers were shopping him after their loss in last year’s Finals. Irving said he no longer wanted to be considered LeBron James’s understudy, and he even pondered the possibility of undergoing extensive knee surgery if he wasn’t traded.
So general manager Koby Altman completed his first major trade, sending Irving to the Celtics last August for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, the Nets’ first-round pick owned by Boston, and former first-rounder Ante Zizic.
Only Zizic remains, after Thomas didn’t work out and was shipped to the Lakers, and Crowder was dealt to the Jazz. The return in those deals consisted of Larry Nance Jr., Jordan Clarkson, and Rodney Hood. Hill was acquired in a separate trade with the Kings.
Nance has had enjoyed his moments, and he was a key contributor in the series win over the Celtics. Clarkson was decent in the regular season but has struggled mightily in the playoffs. Hood played well in Game 3 of the Finals but his overall impact has been minimal.
The regret is apparent. The Cavaliers will have to make good use of that first-round pick to even make the trade with Boston appear respectable. Irving was sorely missed by the Celtics during their postseason run because of knee surgery, and maybe missed even more by the Cavaliers, who are at least one All-Star short of really competing with the Warriors.
“I think it’s only natural to think about [if Irving was still here],’’ said Cavaliers forward Kevin Love. “Especially looking at [J.R. Smith] and Tristan [Thompson] and LeBron and myself, and the guys that have come and gone from our 2016 team and what we were able to do to overcome a 3-1 deficit [in the Finals], and how we were able to win those games. I think, yeah, that’s human nature to think about that kind of thing. But there’s been a lot of overhaul on this roster. We’ve mentioned all year. It’s felt like a number of seasons in one. But we’ve been resilient.’’
James has said he did not want Irving to be traded. He would rather the two had worked out their differences and perhaps make another championship run. Irving resented being considered James’s “little brother’’ or “my guy’’ when he felt he made major contributions to the Cavaliers’ success.
James has been reflective of late, realizing his days in Cleveland may be coming to a close, and appreciating the intelligence and passion of Irving. James talked about the recipe for success against Golden State.
“I think every GM and every president and every coaching staff is trying to figure out how they can make up the right matchups to compete for a championship and win a championship,’’ James said. “I felt like my first stint here I just didn’t have the level of talent to compete versus the best teams in the NBA, let alone just Boston. When you looked at [Rajon] Rondo and KG [Kevin Garnett] and Paul [Pierce] and Ray [Allen], you knew they were great basketball players. But not only great basketball players, you could see their minds were in it too when you were playing them.
“They were calling out sets. Rondo was calling out sets every time you come down. It was like, OK, this is bigger than basketball. So not only do you have to have the talent, you have to have the minds as well. I knew that my talent level here in Cleveland couldn’t succeed getting past a Boston, getting past the San Antonios of the league, or whatever the case may be.
“I played with [Dwyane] Wade. I played with [Chris] Bosh in the Olympics. I knew D-Wade for years. I knew their minds. I knew how they thought the game, more than just playing the game. Obviously, we all knew their talent, but I knew their minds as well. So I linked up with them. We went to Miami. And guys that were talents. You build that talent. That’s what you want to try to do.’’
James said his primary goal upon returning to Cleveland was to build the same standard of basketball intelligence as the teams had in Miami. His first subject was Irving, and perhaps eventually Irving took that as an insult.
“I knew Kyrie, having the talent, I wanted to try to build his mind up to fast-track his mind because I felt like in order to win you’ve got to have talent, but you’ve got to be very cerebral too,’’ James said. “Listen, we’re all NBA players. Everybody knows how to put the ball in the hoop. But who can think throughout the course of the game? This is so challenging for me to sit up here and say because people who really don’t know the game don’t really know what I’m talking about.
“They just think that you go out, and, ‘Oh, LeBron, you’re bigger and faster and stronger than everybody, you should drive every single time and you should dunk every single play and you should never get tired, never.’ Like it’s a video game. So we come back here and we get the minds and we build a championship team.’’
James’s biggest triumph, leading the Cavaliers to Cleveland’s first major sports title in 52 years, is perhaps the reason he’ll leave Cleveland without another title. If the Warriors don’t lose the 2016 Finals, they likely don’t sign Kevin Durant. The Warriors added a former league MVP and then disposed of the Cavaliers, even with Irving, in five games in 2017.
“Golden State, because of Steph’s injuries early on in his career and his contract situation, and then them drafting Draymond [Green] and drafting Klay [Thompson], and them being under the contracts they were in, allowed their franchise to go out to get [Durant],’’ James said. “So they win a championship. Then we play them and we come back from 3-1 and we beat them. But that was the best regular season — probably the best team I had ever played against. They go 73-9, and then you add one of the best players that the NBA has ever seen. So now everyone is trying to figure that out. How do you put together a group of talent but also a group of minds to be able to compete with Golden State, to be able to compete for a championship? Every player does not want to, sad to say, but every player doesn’t want to compete for a championship and be in a position where every possession is pressure.’’
Irving relished the pressure, and that’s what James may be missing most about him. Curry and Irving developed an intense rivalry during those playoff series, and that carried over to their two meetings this season. It was Curry who was on defense when Irving drained that pivotal 3-pointer in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals.
“[Irving] is an unbelievable player,’’ Curry said. “I don’t know much about how much [the Cavaliers’] schemes have changed. They run a lot more sets to try to get guys open shots outside of LeBron creating. It’s just different, but I don’t really know how to explain it.
“Kyrie is such a unique talent. You can just give him the ball and he’ll create a shot for you. They’re much more bent on executing in the half court and trying to create shots with movement, with screens and things like that. And obviously you can just give the ball to LeBron and he can create more times than not. That’s my best way of explaining it.’’
In other words, the Cavaliers just aren’t as good without Irving.
ON THE SKIDS
Stevens a victim of bad timing?
There was a bit of controversy when the National Basketball Coaches Association named the Raptors’ Dwane Casey its coach of the year and it was revealed that the Celtics’ Brad Stevens had not received a single vote from his fellow NBA coaches.
NBCA president Rick Carlisle didn’t expect so much publicity regarding the award, but he said that maybe the reason Stevens didn’t receive a vote was that the Celtics were slumping during the voting period.
“The timing of everything made sense,’’ Carlisle said. “The Celtics were probably viewed as an underdog in their opening-round series. They got by Milwaukee. They beat Philadelphia. It was on the heels of that, that [the award] was announced.
“Go back to the latter part of the regular season, Boston was struggling. They got off to a great start but down the stretch they were having problems. And so in many ways because of what was happening in the playoffs, there was a great sensitivity to it.’’
Stevens downplayed the controversy, saying he wouldn’t have voted for himself. But there was speculation that the coaches overlooking Stevens may have been out of resentment for the attention he has received since taking over the Celtics in 2013.
“I thought the way Brad handled it was phenomenal,’’ Carlisle said. “He’s just been masterful since coming over to the NBA. We couldn’t be happier to have him here. But listen, that’s all part of it. That’s part of social media. But I understood it. I thought it all resolved itself pretty well.’’
Carlisle said that in the future the NBCA is going to attempt to release the voting results toward the end of the regular season, before coaches lead teams through long playoff runs and possibly generate added support.
“It’s kind of maddening trying to time it up when to give it; to make it more uniform from that perspective is something we are talking about,’’ Carlisle said. “I want to make something clear, Dwane was a landslide winner. It wasn’t close. He got at least half the votes, and the others were scattered. And each person only gets one vote. You’re not voting for three places like the media vote. That dynamic changes a little when you do that.’’
And two days after receiving the award, Casey was fired by the Raptors. Carlisle has been highly critical of recent firings. Casey led the Raptors to five consecutive playoff appearances, including to the Eastern Conference finals in 2016, but they were swept by the Cavaliers the last two seasons.
“I fully expect [Casey to be named NBA Coach of the Year],’’ Carlisle said of his former Mavericks assistant. “As president of the coaches association, of course I shake my head. We advocate for coaches. We’ve been fighting for coaches as long as this association has existed, close to 40 years. That said, it’s a dynamic business and there’s certain realities. Owners, GMs have the right to make changes. We sign up for it for a dynamic business, so these kinds of things could happen. He’s going to be fine. The Raptors are going to be fine. I look at it and celebrate the job that he did for seven years, which was amazing.’’
ETC.
Upshaw’s death largely unnoticed
Overshadowed by the end of the NBA regular season and then the playoffs was the tragic death of G-League player Zeke Upshaw, who collapsed on the court late in a game between his Grand Rapid Drive and the Long Island Nets on March 24, and died two days later. The player’s mother, Jewel Upshaw, has filed a lawsuit against the Drive, the G-League, and the NBA.
The NBA has increased heart screenings for retired players and conducts complete physicals for current players before the season. Such physicals detected the heart issues of former Celtics Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox, each of whom had surgery and were able to resume their careers.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke recently for the first time regarding Upshaw’s death. Upshaw’s mother said her son should have received better medical attention at the time of his collapse.
“We and the players association are putting more resources into screening, particularly for cardiac issues,’’ Silver said. “The death of Zeke, of course, was a tragedy. I don’t know all the details to why that tragedy occurred. But it’s something that [NBPA executive director] Michele Roberts and I are talking about constantly, whether in the NBA or the G-League, and what it is we can do in terms of state of the art screening, state of the art treatment, and state of the art prevention, and so those are things we’ll continue to focus on, and the goal being a life should never be lost on the court.’’
Pro basketball players are considered some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world, so Upshaw’s death shocked the basketball world. But, perhaps because it was the G-League and Upshaw was not a well-known player, the story has not gotten much notice.
“You want to think it will never happen, but we know historically it has happened,’’ Silver said. “And the best thing we can do is use the information from the past to prevent it from happening in the future. Again, in the case of Zeke, I don’t have firsthand knowledge of why Zeke lost his life. But we are continuing to study it to see if there are different steps we can take or can be taken in the future to do even more to protect these young men.’’
Layups
The resignation of 76ers general manager Bryan Colangelo could have an impact in Boston, where the Sixers may go after Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren. Zarren is highly regarded around the league but is comfortable in Boston and has spurned GM opportunities in the past. Zarren enjoys being the Celtics’ capologist, a man behind the scenes, and Danny Ainge’s top confidant. The question is whether Zarren wants the pressure of running his own operation, as well as the constant media obligations. The Celtics will certainly do what they can to keep him . . . The Pistons are taking their time deciding on their next coach, but they may be better off hiring a president and general manager first. The Pistons are interested in Dwane Casey, who was fired by the Raptors last month. Casey would seem like a natural choice, but the Pistons were also considering University of Michigan coach John Beilein, who removed himself from contention this past week. Detroit missed the playoffs this season despite the ninth-highest payroll in the NBA, and the Pistons are carrying two bad contracts in Langston Galloway (two years left at $14 million total) and Jon Leuer (two years left at $19 million total) in addition to large deals for Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond, and Reggie Jackson. The Pistons could essentially bring back the same team with their lottery selection and hope their luck changes, but there needs to be better chemistry between Griffin and Drummond. Jackson spent a chunk of the season out with an ankle injury, and the former Boston College star still hasn’t proven he can be the leader of a playoff team. Casey is the right choice, and if that’s the case, Jerry Stackhouse may be left out of the running for an NBA head coaching job until next season.
The Cavaliers’ Rodney Hood has had a rocky postseason, but his 15-point performance in Game 3 of the Finals against the Warriors may have helped his marketability as a restricted free agent. Hood has been in coach Tyronn Lue’s doghouse for most of the playoffs. He was expected to earn a lucrative next contract after emerging for the Jazz this season, but there was a reason why Utah dealt Hood to Cleveland, his maddening inconsistency. He will be one of a number of interesting restricted free agents this offseason. Others include the Celtics’ Marcus Smart, Orlando’s Aaron Gordon, Houston’s Clint Capela, the Lakers’ Julius Randle, Milwaukee’s Jabari Parker, and Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic.
Gary Washburn can be reached at gwashburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GwashburnGlobe. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
