The Kyrie Irving free agency thread(to sign 4yr/$141M w/Nets page 105)

[chiken]

Why are we so sure that last year having Kyrie in the playoffs would have yielded better results?    The Team played differently without him...
Why are we so sure that this year's playoff run with him would not have been the same last year with him...  2nd round bounce...

Was it not obvious that without him the team played more Free... More like a Team.. (more like Golden state (team) and less like The Rockets (Individual)

Like we actually have a reference at this point right.

[ObjectivityOverBias]

As an outsider, I for one thought you all were fools (Not you all, but the front office) for trading away the vets for unknowns. However, Kyrie helped groomed those unknowns to contenders.

Somewhere along the line, the students decided they were better than the teacher. Egos emerged and players started to think they were better than they were, they started to think money.

With Gordon and Kyrie down, the young guys figured "We don't need em, made it this far without em." Forgetting Kyrie helped groom them and get those guys to the level they are at during year one.

While Kyrie didn't win anything, how is he any different than any other star who got bounced in the playoffs the last 2 years?

The Kyrie experiment was a failure. Objectively, Brad is to blame for not checking the young guys, and Ainge for not trading them for AD when he had the chance.

Nothing significant was accomplished, team wise. Statistically, he was the most efficient he has ever been. In the conversation with Bird, stat wise in terms of efficacy.

[hwangjini_1]

now this would be funny if true.

https://deadspin.com/is-this-kyrie-irving-scolding-celtics-fans-under-an-ali-1835745111

[gouki88]

Woj said this morning that BKN doesn't want Kyrie as a solo act and would probably just stick with Russell if it was just Kyrie coming.

So I wonder if Kyrie to BKN isn't a done deal on that front if KD or someone else isn't coming. He might end up pivoting to somewhere else.

I’m sure the Knicks would take him.

Their "marquee" signings will end up being Kyrie and Mook

[ozgod]

As an outsider, I for one thought you all were fools (Not you all, but the front office) for trading away the vets for unknowns. However, Kyrie helped groomed those unknowns to contenders.

Somewhere along the line, the students decided they were better than the teacher. Egos emerged and players started to think they were better than they were, they started to think money.

With Gordon and Kyrie down, the young guys figured "We don't need em, made it this far without em." Forgetting Kyrie helped groom them and get those guys to the level they are at during year one.

While Kyrie didn't win anything, how is he any different than any other star who got bounced in the playoffs the last 2 years?

The Kyrie experiment was a failure. Objectively, Brad is to blame for not checking the young guys, and Ainge for not trading them for AD when he had the chance.

Nothing significant was accomplished, team wise. Statistically, he was the most efficient he has ever been. In the conversation with Bird, stat wise in terms of efficacy.

He couldn't have traded the young guys for AD when he had the chance, because of Kyrie and the Rose Rule. In that sense yes the Kyrie experiment failed to allow us to trade for AD at the time he became available.

I do agree to a point about the students thinking they got better than the teacher and setting their sights on getting paid after making the ECF. Can't really blame them, they're 21year old kids that ended up a quarter away from toppling LeBum and his cobbled together Cavs team in the ECF in 2018. Nobody on the team is going to say "oh we didn't really deserve to make it, it's a weak East". Nobody complained about Kyrie's leadership on the court while we were getting the No.2 seed. Nobody complained about Kyrie being a Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. in the media in 2018. He didn't make any outrageous statements, in fact he apologized for calling the earth flat, and went out of his way to praise the team and the young guys. Tried to make a verbal commitment to us early when he didn't have to (which backfired on him also).

It wasn't till Gordon came back, the team was slow out of the gate at 10-10 while he floundered in the starting lineup, Brown struggled in the opening lineup as well, and both got benched for Mook and Smart that the drama started. Kyrie started criticizing them after losses and the fans started criticizing the team. The criticism generally had a "you guys don't have the experience, only I have the experience to win a championship and you have to make sacrifices" tone. Why the criticism in 2019 and not in 2018? It's not hard to imagine the team listening to him back in 2018, being happy because they were getting more minutes, more time in the limelight because of Gordon's injury, then moping and sulking because those minutes got taken away after success. And Kyrie felt the pressure, because the main currency he was using to influence the young guys was "I've been there, follow me". Bit hard when they almost got there without you.

I have sympathy for Kyrie because sometimes I think the evaluation of him on this forum doesn't take into account his whole body of work, which includes our season of 2017-18. If we're going to criticize him for failing to lead, failing to lift his game when we needed him to, and torpedoing our efforts in 2019, and rightly so, we should acknowledge that his contribution to getting a 2nd seed, which gave us home ground advantage throughout the playoffs in 2018.

Kyrie's failure was his failure to lead and take the team to great heights and meet the expectations after 2018. Statistically he had I think the best season of his career, most assists, best efficiency. Just couldn't get it done when it counted, and that's all fans ultimately care about. But he's hardly to blame for the whole season - this is an organizational failure on multiple levels. If we think it's going to be all better because he's bailed out and the cancer's gone that would be shortsighted. There's players who will still be on this team and organization this coming year that bear some responsibility for what happened last season. Hopefully this summer is a chance for them to look in the mirror and accept responsibility for their roles in what happened, and work to be better for the team in the future. Only then will we be better going forward.

[Cousy]

Kyrie made millions of dollars and screwed up our team.

[Ogaju]

Solidified both his status as a diva and the fact that he’s not good enough to be a team’s best player on a true title contender.

If we get a competent starting big to replace Al, it won’t surprise me in the least if we end up a better overall team next year when Brown and Tatum can actually flourish and expand their games, similar to Hayward who will also be farther out from injury.

But yet I am certain we could've used HIM in that game 7 vs CLE - where our young pups sat on the porch while LeBron the big dog beat us because we didn't have an ALPHA (Kyrie) to carry us......................

funny because with him Cs probably do not even get to game 7.

[GreenFaith1819]

Solidified both his status as a diva and the fact that he’s not good enough to be a team’s best player on a true title contender.

If we get a competent starting big to replace Al, it won’t surprise me in the least if we end up a better overall team next year when Brown and Tatum can actually flourish and expand their games, similar to Hayward who will also be farther out from injury.

But yet I am certain we could've used HIM in that game 7 vs CLE - where our young pups sat on the porch while LeBron the big dog beat us because we didn't have an ALPHA (Kyrie) to carry us......................

funny because with him Cs probably do not even get to game 7.

Oh C'MON man the way the C's played that year WITH Kyrie...they played WELL together ALL YEAR...

I know it is fashionable right now to go with the flow on the blog right now and hate Kyrie but go ahead - you can think for yourself for a sec.

It is not hard.

[GreenFaith1819]

Kyrie made millions of dollars and screwed up our team.

Well at least he SHOT a LOT better than your namesake......



Have your first TP. Welcome to the Blog.

[Ogaju]

As an outsider, I for one thought you all were fools (Not you all, but the front office) for trading away the vets for unknowns. However, Kyrie helped groomed those unknowns to contenders.

Somewhere along the line, the students decided they were better than the teacher. Egos emerged and players started to think they were better than they were, they started to think money.

With Gordon and Kyrie down, the young guys figured "We don't need em, made it this far without em." Forgetting Kyrie helped groom them and get those guys to the level they are at during year one.

While Kyrie didn't win anything, how is he any different than any other star who got bounced in the playoffs the last 2 years?

The Kyrie experiment was a failure. Objectively, Brad is to blame for not checking the young guys, and Ainge for not trading them for AD when he had the chance.

Nothing significant was accomplished, team wise. Statistically, he was the most efficient he has ever been. In the conversation with Bird, stat wise in terms of efficacy.

He couldn't have traded the young guys for AD when he had the chance, because of Kyrie and the Rose Rule. In that sense yes the Kyrie experiment failed to allow us to trade for AD at the time he became available.

I do agree to a point about the students thinking they got better than the teacher and setting their sights on getting paid after making the ECF. Can't really blame them, they're 21year old kids that ended up a quarter away from toppling LeBum and his cobbled together Cavs team in the ECF in 2018. Nobody on the team is going to say "oh we didn't really deserve to make it, it's a weak East". Nobody complained about Kyrie's leadership on the court while we were getting the No.2 seed. Nobody complained about Kyrie being a **** in the media in 2018. He didn't make any outrageous statements, in fact he apologized for calling the earth flat, and went out of his way to praise the team and the young guys. Tried to make a verbal commitment to us early when he didn't have to (which backfired on him also).

It wasn't till Gordon came back, the team was slow out of the gate at 10-10 while he floundered in the starting lineup, Brown struggled in the opening lineup as well, and both got benched for Mook and Smart that the drama started. Kyrie started criticizing them after losses and the fans started criticizing the team. The criticism generally had a "you guys don't have the experience, only I have the experience to win a championship and you have to make sacrifices" tone. Why the criticism in 2019 and not in 2018? It's not hard to imagine the team listening to him back in 2018, being happy because they were getting more minutes, more time in the limelight because of Gordon's injury, then moping and sulking because those minutes got taken away after success. And Kyrie felt the pressure, because the main currency he was using to influence the young guys was "I've been there, follow me". Bit hard when they almost got there without you.

I have sympathy for Kyrie because sometimes I think the evaluation of him on this forum doesn't take into account his whole body of work, which includes our season of 2017-18. If we're going to criticize him for failing to lead, failing to lift his game when we needed him to, and torpedoing our efforts in 2019, and rightly so, we should acknowledge that his contribution to getting a 2nd seed, which gave us home ground advantage throughout the playoffs in 2018.

Kyrie's failure was his failure to lead and take the team to great heights and meet the expectations after 2018. Statistically he had I think the best season of his career, most assists, best efficiency. Just couldn't get it done when it counted, and that's all fans ultimately care about. But he's hardly to blame for the whole season - this is an organizational failure on multiple levels. If we think it's going to be all better because he's bailed out and the cancer's gone that would be shortsighted. There's players who will still be on this team and organization this coming year that bear some responsibility for what happened last season. Hopefully this summer is a chance for them to look in the mirror and accept responsibility for their roles in what happened, and work to be better for the team in the future. Only then will we be better going forward.

You are missing one point..... the fans love the Boston Celtics over and above any individual player. Kyrie's problem with the fans really started when he turned his back on the Celtics. If he had maintained his promise to re-sign with the Celtics the fans would have supported him over the younger players.

[GreenFaith1819]

There are some signs that he is leaving BOS. That could very well be true.

All I ask is THIS



If he ends up signing with us please have a side order of fries with that crow.

[Ilikesports17]

This



And this.



Which is FAR MORE important than dribbling a dang basketball......

Now IF you want to discuss basketball -

He was among the team leaders in taking CHARGES - THIS YEAR.

He was our starting PG during our 16 game winning streak in 17-18.

The team was 42-13 in 17-18 with Kyrie Irving as our starting PG.

We were a healthy Kyrie Irving away from going to the NBA Finals in 17-18.

I don't give a hoot if I'm the last Kyrie Irving fan on this sometimes fickle Blog - everything that went wrong WASN'T his fault...sure he was a PART of it - but he is taking an absurd amount of blame for it.

don't waste your time on facts with people here.  they will see what they want to see very reminiscent of ........well nm i won't get into politics here.

you are far from the last kyrie fan. not sure where that came from as they are still a few of us here who arr not crying like a spoiled child/jilted lover only pointing out where he did not carry this team! or do this or that! LOL it is sad and pathetic.

If we’re talking facts let’s make sure to cross out that line about being a healthy Kyrie away from the finals

[Ilikesports17]

Kyrie made millions of dollars and screwed up our team.

Well at least he SHOT a LOT better than your namesake......



Have your first TP. Welcome to the Blog.

He didn’t shoot better than Cousy when it mattered.

25/83 in the last for games of the ECSF.

[Ilikesports17]

He had 2 terrific individual seasons but ultimately his time with the Celtics had a massive negative impact on his personal reputation/legacy and a massive negative impact on the Celtics as a team.

That much seems like it can’t be argued.

He had a terrific opportunity in what was regarded as one of the best run teams in basketball surrounded by a terrific supporting cast and in the end it was a huge missed opportunity for both the Celtics and Irving. Perhaps he is able to rescue his reputation in the years to come but it was a disastrous tenure for both him and the franchise

[GreenFaith1819]

Kyrie made millions of dollars and screwed up our team.

Well at least he SHOT a LOT better than your namesake......



Have your first TP. Welcome to the Blog.

He didn’t shoot better than Cousy when it mattered.

25/83 in the last for games of the ECSF.

Yeah and the rest of the team was lighting it up, too.....