The Cavs Are Doing Damage Control After Cratering to Kyrie Irving

It is becoming clearer by the night the Celtics won the blockbuster trade with the Cavaliers that ultimately led to Kyrie Irving being traded.

It never made much sense why Cleveland was so quick to honor his trade wishes… well, according to Cleveland.com, he threatened to sit out, and have knee surgery if it was not granted.

Like any report, the first few questions that come to mind are who leaked it, who wanted it to get out, who does it benefit?

The answer for all three this time is the Cavs. The team is stumbling right now going 3 – 7 so far in the month, falling back to the third seed, 6.5 games behind Irving’s new team in first place.

This report indicates Cleveland did the right thing by trading him. However, there are a multitude of layers here.

This feels like a way for someone in the Cavs organization to get a pass for the abysmal trade that sent their second best player to their eastern conference rival.

It also is an attempt to decrease the tensions between LeBron James and upper management with his highly anticipated free agency months away.  Reports surfaced earlier this week that LeBron is not happy the team did not trade for Paul George

To be more specific the person that benefits the most from this leak is the owner Dan Gilbert, just one day after Stephen A. Smith claimed Gilbert wanted to sell the team (at the 4:40 mark).

Funny this did not come out after reports of a trade demand, after the trade finalized, during training camp, at the start of the season, or during the team’s 13-game winning streak, but during the week Isaiah Thomas called out Kevin Love, reports came out of Gilbert wanting to sell the team, and just days after giving up 148 to the Thunder followed up by an embarrassing loss to the Spurs.

Whether this report is true, or just an attempted distraction, it is safe to say things are not going well in Cleveland. Does this report make things look any better? No.