Look, normally we wouldn’t do this, but normally the two top teams in the Eastern Conference don’t swap point guards in a late-August mega-blockbuster trade.
The details: Boston is sending Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Nets’ 2018 unprotected first-round pick to Cleveland for Kyrie Irving.
This probably doesn’t change who the perceived top-two in the East are, but it may shift their relative strength, now and for the potential post-LeBron James East landscape from 2018 onward. There are reasons you can craft for each side making this deal, for the near- and long-term, but it certainly promises to be polarizing. It’s…an enormous, tectonic shift for the NBA, well after those kind of changes are supposed to happen. The NBA is freaking amazing, and we’re all lucky to have it in our lives 365 days a year (apparently).
This should also mean the Canadian NBA 2K cover featuring DeMar DeRozan should be the league-wide cover now, right?
So, without influencing anything with my own take (for now), your thoughts?
