I am sickened that I HAD to vote to re-sign Irving and trade for AD, but I think that we have no choice if we want to compete for a title in the next 5 years, unless we got incredibly lucky. Hayward's contract especially straps us here in terms of our viable, title-contending options and flexibility.
Both Irving and AD have injury histories that are concerning to me: AD for injury frequency (although somewhat varied, but his left knee has been a problem twice) and Irving for the severity and it being a knee. What are the chances that at least one of them doesn't get hurt in the next few years? And if one is injured for any substantial length of time, we are sunk as we will be giving up substantial talent to get AD, so we couldn't win without both on the floor.
Also, it doesn't seem like Irving respects Stevens, although I admire that Irving called out Stevens schemes or lack thereof and questioned certain strategies like how to guard Kemba.
I think one of them has to go, unless there can be a detente there. Hard to see it happen. When you lose a team, as Stevens did this year, especially Irving, it's real hard to get it back.
Also, TP to the OP, as this thread is even more timely now!!