Time to put in my final grade. Since it appears that this trade boiled down to:
Kyrie Irving for
#24 pick (Cleveland traded this to get Clarkson)
#8 pick
Jordan Clarkson
Larry Nance Jr.
Zizic
George Hill
#56 2nd round pick
Then there's no question that's a "A". Ainge wins again. From a returns standpoint that's an insane trade.
It's no secret that I wasn't overjoyed with the deal. I didn't hate it and I understood it but I wasn't exceptionally pleased with it. Some people misinterpret this as being an IT homer. I understood why it made sense to ship him off (even before we knew the extent of his injury). It's because I had, and still have, serious reservations about Irving's true value. I don't value him nearly as highly as others here. There's an argument to be made that he's not even the best PG on this team. He'll outscore and outshoot Rozier and neither is a particularly good passer; but Terry is a far better rebound and miles better on the defensive end. If Rozier is as good as these playoffs suggest then that's a much closer battle than some will admit. Kyrie is a big name but I don't think he plays like a superstar. I don't think he showed much growth with his game this year either.
However, Irving has far more value then anything else we gave away. IT appears to be broken. Crowder looks like a (valuable) bench contributor for Utah. The pick ended up being worse than most of us expected. Meanwhile, if we wanted to pair Irving with a pick we could swing a deal for another superstar (Leonard? Cousins?). Meanwhile, even if we keep Irving the value is far higher for this team than what we ultimately disposed of.
So yeah, this was ultimately a deal that really hurt the Cs biggest competitor and didn't hurt the Celtics at all. That's an A in my book.