We could trade for Irving (as long as we're not giving up any of Swanigan, Lillard, McCollum, Nurkic, Harkless or Collins, in that order) and then play an extreme small ball lineup: PG: Lillard SG: McCollum SF: Irving PF: Harkless C: Aminu Even the Warriors would be perplexed!
I was thinking we trade Harkless for Irving, Nurk for Chris Paul and Swanigan for John Wall. That would be interesting.
I think our best chance to improve is to try to get involved in a 3 or 4 team trade with Kyrie/Love possibly moving and perhaps Carmelo still as well. Boston while having a lot of talent has a weird/unbalanced roster and needs to do some consolidation as well. There "might" be opportunities there
We could have had DRose for nothing but luxury tax (as it stands now). He looked good last year for the first time since his career wrecking injury. He's most definitely a hard worker and a good teammate, from what I saw of him. Even hurt, he was still a really good PG at worst. I bet he'd love it in Portland. He's going to earn a big paycheck, in theory, by putting up good numbers on a good team, and being a key member of that team. I think the Cavs are done after this season, though.
It depends whether Irving leaves or not. He has a contract for three more seasons so Cavs don't really need to let him go for poor return. Maybe they will wait and see if he can figure it out again with James and the rest. They certainly should not be rushing into any decision, unless they get offered a great package IMO they won't trade him now. Best packages they can now get are IMO Wiggins + Dieng from Minnesota, Bledsoe + Warren from Phoenix, Murray + Aldridge from San Antonio and Dragic + Winslow from Miami. All of them are IMO good enough to get disgruntled Kyrie but question is whether any of these teams will put them on the table. Got a feeling they will all try to lowball Cleveland.
Two more seasons, really, since Irving has an opt-out on the third year, but that doesn't really negate your point. That said, the Bulls seemed to feel some urgency in dealing Butler despite two years remaining. If Irving and Bron really are at odds (and while I don't really buy that "I want to knock him out" thing, I would expect some sore feelings when Irving is fingering James as the reason he wants out) then I don't really see them forcing the two to co-exist for a year. Then again, it is Dan Gilbert's team so you never know.
True. Butler went for admittedly a lot less than anybody though he would, although in the hindsight that deal does not look THAT terrible for Bulls - it only does because we expected them to get a lot, lot more. I don't know why Bulls wanted that deal to happen so quick though, they could have still waited and got a better return. I still don't get why Celtics did not get him.