Kyrie Irving trade sweepstakes has drawn 20 teams and 6 offers

Kyrie Irving trade sweepstakes has drawn 20 teams and 6 offers

Kyrie Irving trade sweepstakes has drawn 20 teams and 6 offers
NBA

Kyrie Irving trade sweepstakes has drawn 20 teams and 6 offers

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Google Plus

There are two teams that can give the Cavaliers what they want for Irving.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have actively shopped All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving ever since he went to ownership requesting a trade. And according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, 20 teams have reached out to Cleveland to gauge interest in landing the 25-year-old guard.

Of those teams, six made trade offers, according to ESPN: the San Antonio Spurs, LA Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, and Miami Heat. The others either don’t have enough assets to make a legitimate offer or “loom in the shadows” throughout the deal-making process.

According to Woj, team executives are looking into Irving’s character and work habits, his leadership qualities and penchant for late nights. Everyone Irving has been in touch with on a professional level — including ex-teammates, former Cavs executives, Team USA basketball officials and players, and his Nike Kyrie shoe representatives — have received calls.

Via ESPN:

Truth be told, the Cavaliers trade talks have been buoyed with teams getting back better, if not perfect, reports on Irving's growth, league sources said. Among the consensus: Irving has a history of late nights and partying, but there's no trail of missed practices, bloodshot eyes or hungover shootarounds. Most intel has come back that he has curbed those tendencies into his mid-20s, picking his spots more wisely. As a teammate, Irving can be moody, but most agree he's ultimately invested. He hasn't always loved deferring to [LeBron James] on the Cavaliers, or Kevin Durant in USA Basketball. This is the Kobe Bryant inside of him, and that's part of the DNA that can be a blessing and a curse. Teams believe he's smart, savvy and, above all, they believe he's a winner.

New Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman is in no rush to deal his All-Star point guard. He and owner Dan Gilbert made that painfully clear by their continued referral to Irving’s trade request as “a fluid situation” and by putting no timetable on moving the young guard.

Irving is one of the best players to become available on the trade market in a long time. Only 25 years old, he has an NBA championship, an All-Star MVP and an Olympic gold medal. He is the best ball-handler in the NBA, one of the best finishers at the rim available league-wide and is arguably the best inside-outside scorer at the point guard position.

Irving is a winner and a competitor, and he hasn’t even reached his prime yet.

As a result, Cleveland wants a deal similar to that of Denver, which traded Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the Knicks in 2011. In return, the Nuggets recouped a deep package of young, established players including Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, New York’s 2014 first-round pick, two second-rounders, and cash.

There are two teams that can give Cleveland what it wants

The Miami Heat have made both Goran Dragic and Justise Winslow available in Irving trades, according to ESPN. Winslow is good friends with Irving and would love to play with him, per the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, but the Heat package simply isn’t attractive enough to warrant parting ways with an all-world talent.