The Cleveland Cavaliers have had an underwhelming offseason, and now star point guard Kyrie Irving weighs in on it. Irving's comments come following a report by USA Today that LeBron James is concerned about how the team's offseason has gone, which set off speculation about his future in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers offseason so far
The Cleveland Cavaliers started their offseason by parting ways with general manager David Griffin after both sides could not reach a contract extension. The team has still not replaced Griffin, although they did lowball Chauncey Billups during negotiating to become GM, after which he withdrew his name from consideration.
Also senior vice president of basketball operations Trent Redden left, and the team had no draft picks this year.
The Cavaliers brought back backup shooting guard Kyle Korver on a 3 year, $22 million deal and small forward Richard Jefferson is coming back after deciding not to retire. They replaced backup point guard Deron Williams, with an older Jose Calderon. Lastly, they signed 30-year-old Jeff Green, who is coming off his worse season, and brought over young Turkish forward Cedi Osman.
What did Irving say?
While at Sports Illustrated's Fashionable 50 event in Los Angeles, Kyrie Irving weighted in on the Cleveland Cavaliers offseason moves. He stated that “I understand we're in a very peculiar place” and then went on to say how the team has to make sure that all their parts are aligned, mentioning how crazy the NBA offseason was.
He did end on a seemingly positive note, saying that “there are some things I'm pretty sure our organization wants to do, and we'll go from there.” However, there is no concern about Irving bolting, since he is under contract with the team for three more seasons.
Concerned LeBron
LeBron James is “concerned” about how the Cleveland Cavaliers offseason has gone.
This has naturally set off all kinds of talk on if he will stay in Cleveland. The Cavaliers have not done anything to close the gap with the Golden State Warriors, who doled out big money to keep Steph Curry, Andre Iguodala, and Shaun Livingston, all thanks to Kevin Durant's pay cut.
They also brought back David West and Zaza Pachulia, while adding Nick Young, Omir Casspi and drafting Jordan Bell.
As the best player in the NBA, LeBron will hold all the cards, especially since this is his last year in Cleveland. He has a player option for 2018-19 and could opt out of it to go wherever he wants after this season.
