It's a Wonderful Life, fun to imagine all the possible butterfly effects.
The run to Game 7 the ECF in 2018 was great. I don't want to lose that (though obviously I'd trade it for a championship last year, this year, next year,
or even a Finals run, etc.).
So what happens to Kyrie if he isn't traded to Boston? Does he stay on the Cavs and get surgery? If so is he out for the year, or back in time for playoffs? With Kyrie still on CLE, maybe it's Cavs in 5 (like in '17) instead of Cavs in 7 if he's ready for the playoffs. Do we not get that awesome Tatum dunk on LeBron? Or maybe Cavs are worse by keeping Kyrie because Kyrie is out all year, and the Cavs don't have assets (Thomas, Crowder) to make trades (Nance, Clarkson, Hood) and tinker with the team. Maybe Cavs are better because Thomas/Crowder don't tank their chemistry. Maybe IND or TOR beat CLE now. This could go a lot of ways.
Do the C's still go on that 16 game win streak? Maybe they'll lose a few more games and are the #4 seed, lose to the Cleveland in the 1st round and never get to humiliate the Sixers in 5? Never get to within minutes of the Finals? Or maybe they lose to somebody else in the 1st or 2nd round instead (TOR, IND)?
With no Kyrie, and Thomas injured, does Rozier becoming the full time starting PG? Is Rozier still the C's starting PG now after running the team for the last 2 years, and with nobody in front of him Danny pays to keep him?
Or if Kyrie is traded somewhere else other than Boston, does it affect the East at all? Does Cleveland get pieces that fit better and now there's no 7 game series vs Boston because Cleveland is better? Does somebody in the East trade for Kyrie and get better or worse?
Miami, New York, Minnesota, and San Antonio were supposedly on his list, so maybe Miami wins a few more games and affects the East a little. Or maybe Kyrie was traded to Brooklyn in '17 and just left them in free agency to go somewhere else?
And then without the Kyrie trade, there's all these Hayward questions:
Taking it a step further, can we assume that Hayward never would have been injured? The pass that led to the injury was from Kyrie and he was met by Crowder (who would have still been on the team, or traded to another). I know that's not fair, but it's pretty safe to assume we would have All-Star Hayward for the last two seasons instead.