Cavs, Celtics Made Contact Regarding Trade

7:00pm: The Cavs and Celtics started to engage each other on a solution today, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN writes. Wojnarowski adds that the Cavs are no longer looking for Boston’s top young players (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had been previously mentioned) or significant draft picks. League sources tell Wojnarowski that a late first-round pick or second-round pick could suffice.

5:00pm: While the prevailing narrative throughout the NBA world this week has been about the Cavaliers supposedly seeking to renegotiate the Kyrie Irving trade, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald points out that the two sides haven’t actually spoken about it following Cleveland’s medical examination of Isaiah Thomas‘ now famous hip.

The Cavs have until Thursday morning to void the deal if the two clubs don’t decide to mutually extend that deadline.

Per A. Sherrod Blakely of CSN New England, the Cavaliers don’t believe that they were duped by Danny Ainge and the C’s, just that the two clubs interpreted Thomas’ prognosis differently.

Even if the Cavs did look for additional compensation after the fact, Chris Forsberg of ESPN writes that he believes Boston should stand pat lest something as seemingly trivial as a late pick turn into a sleeper star or potentially facilitate a trade for a superstar.

Sean Deveney of The Sporting News echoes Forsberg’s sentiments, albeit for slightly different reasons. Since the Cavaliers knew as much about Thomas’ hip as the Celtics did, Boston caving to retroactive concerns about a trade would set a bad precedent.

Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders does a good job of shining light on the conundrum from Cleveland’s perspective and points out that NBA circles tend to agree that the Celtics would agree to more compensation.

Kyler highlights the fact that the Cavs were clearly looking for veteran players who could help them contend this season. If Thomas isn’t able to perform at a high level come the second half of the 2017/18 season, he isn’t exactly the “win-now” player the team sought from the get-go when Irving requested his trade.

What’s more, an injured Thomas would represent $6MM of luxury taxed money and limit Cleveland’s roster flexibility.

Again, while fans and scribes can discuss the details and general ethics of a hypothetical renegotiation, it’s worth pointing out that the Cavs haven’t actually contacted Ainge about doing so.

If they still haven’t by 10:00 AM CST Thursday, the trade will officially be in the books.

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