The Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to go ahead with the trade amid lingering issues on Isaiah Thomas' hip injury. According to NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics made a final offer to Cleveland sending a 2020 second-round pick via the Miami Heat to seal the deal. Primarily interested in a first round pick, the Cavaliers settled for the offer after already acquiring Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, and Ante Zizic.
Story on ESPN: Boston adds a 2020 second-round pick, finally acquires Kyrie Irving in trade with Cleveland. https://t.co/KD2VGLWxkw
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 31, 2017
Deadline to the Celtics-Cavaliers trade
Late Wednesday night, the Cavaliers agreed to the offer before everything falls out on the Thursday deadline.
ESPN reported that the team's reluctance to seal the deal commenced when Isaiah Thomas' physical proved worse than what they expected. Hoping to find compensation to the trade, the Cavs inquired the Celtics of Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum to add to the deal. The Boston Celtics, on the other hand, said the Cavs knew about Isaiah's condition prior to the deal and that there's no reason to extend favors.
10-hours prior to the deadline for signing the deal, the Cleveland Cavaliers remained hopeful in getting the first-round pick from the Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, the latter has made its decision and offered the best solution to finalize the trade.
For the part of Cleveland, they claim, the Celtics was not clear on the status of ITs injury and there was no way they could have known he will not be able to recuperate 100 percent before the season.
While rehabilitating his injury, Isaiah Thomas in an interview shared his thoughts about his condition. "There's never been an indication that I wouldn't be back, and there's never been an indication that this is something messing up my career," he said.
Isaiah Thomas talks about injury
Talking to ESPN, Thomas further mentioned that he may not be back as early as fans expected him to but he promised that he will be back and he will perform on the same level as he did before.
"No doctor has told me anything different than that," he added. His statement could be taken by the Cavaliers as an assurance that he will be able to help the team win games in the regular season.
Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving has not released a statement regarding the trade but is expected to join the Boston Celtics when training camp begins this September.
Since wrapping up his Nike tour in China, the former Cleveland star is rumored to have ceased his communication with the team. Former teammate LeBron James, on the other hand, took to twitter his farewell message to Irving.