The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly reached out to the Golden State Warriors front-office, trying to initiate exploratory talks about a possible Trade involving All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and two-way star Klay Thompson. Marc J. Spears of the Undefeated reported that the Warriors immediately rebuffed the proposal before proper negotiations took place.

Breakdown of the failed Irving-Thompson trade

According to Spears, the Cavaliers contacted the Warriors in an attempt to discuss a trade transaction centered on Irving. Cleveland reportedly pitched an idea of sending the dynamic point guard to their NBA Finals' foe for the last three years in exchange for a package that comes with Thompson and additional trade assets.

As expected, the Warriors didn’t think twice about turning down the trade proposal, leading the Cavs to find another trade partner which turned out to the Boston Celtics. Sources close to the situation are reporting the Cavs took the chance of reaching out the Warriors for exploratory talks since Thompson is set to become an unrestricted free-agent in 2019. The current CBA will make it difficult for the defending champion to re-sign their All-Star off-guard on a max deal.

However, the Warriors are confident they can find a way to keep their ‘core four’ of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and Thompson intact for the next four to five years. Golden State has also made significant moves in free-agency by re-signing Durant, Andre Iguodala, and Shaun Livingston while acquiring the service of streak-shooters Nick Young and Omri Casspi.

Cavs, Celtics will eventually fix problem

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN believes both the Cavs and the Celtics are in for a very awkward situation should their blockbuster trade falls through. The Celtics traded away Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round pick in 2018 to the Cavaliers in exchange for a prime time scorer in Irving last week.

However, the trade hits a snag before it gets finalized after Thomas’ physical showed his hip injury (torn labrum) would require longer rehabilitation time they expected.

Woj notes that the Cavs are trying to get one more first-round draft pick or a young player from the Celtics to compensate Thomas’ injury. The Celtics, on the other hand, are resisting such request as they thought they were transparent about the extent of Thomas’ injury before both parties agreed to the trade.

Then again, the veteran NBA insider is still confident the Cavs and Celtics will eventually finalize the deal. The Cavs, whom many analysts believe won the trade especially after getting that potential top-5 Brooklyn pick, will have until Thursday to accept or revoke the deal, although they can extend negotiations if both teams agree.
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