Kyrie Irving has been traded to the Boston Celtics in quite possibly the biggest trade since the Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen back in 2007. This deal came as a shock to many, one moment the rumors hit, and then minutes later the deal was finalized. It was done so quickly no one even had a second to even process it before a deal was made. Cavaliers trading their star point guard to their biggest foe was quite the shock to NBA fans, I mean how could it not be. This kinda stuff never happens. Did the Cavaliers just give their biggest threat the ammunition they need to finally slay the beast of the east that is Lebron James? Well, I don't know about all that.

The Cavaliers are clearly preparing for life after Lebron James. The Cavs acquired star point guard Isaiah Thomas, who is one of the NBA's most prolific scorers, they also received Jae Crowder, a solid all around player, and the Nets 2018 draft pick. This gives them the opportunity to rebuild on the fly after Lebron James takes his talents elsewhere this offseason. They'll have Isaiah Thomas to lean on while in this transition period and they'll end up with a top 5 pick since the Nets are going to be god awful once again this season. They're hoping that pick will turn into the franchise player of the future and at least this time when Lebron leaves the franchise won't completely be in shambles. As for this season the Cavaliers will still be the team to beat in the east. They replaced their scoring point guard with another scoring point guard, they added a top notch defender in Crowder, and they really shouldn't be all that much worse without Kyrie this year. Yes, they have no shot at beating Golden State, although they didn't really have a shot with him, but they'll still be either the 1 or 2 seed in the east. Eventually, they'll meet the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, which is when we'll really see if the Celtics are ready to take that next step.

I'm still ruling the Cavs as favorites to win the East. Until the greatest player since Michael Jordan is dethroned of his ability to make the NBA Finals, he'll favorite be the favorite to win the East. The Celtics added Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving this offseason, however they gave up a lot of players that contributed to the core values of the team that made them so good. Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder were easily the two best defenders on the team, so there's no chance the Celtics are as good defensively this season, which is what made them so great last year. Yes, the offense will be more prolific when it comes to scoring, but let's not forget it's going to take some time for this new group of Celtics player to learn how to play together and really gel. Kyrie is an isolation player, so will he really be able to elevate the play of the guys around him. He wanted to be the head honcho, now he gets that opportunity, let's see what he can do with it. Can the student become the master, or will Lebron show Kyrie that he's not ready to leave the throne. I cannot wait for the NBA season to start, at least one conference finals will be competitive this season.

The Indiana Pacers are so upset that they were fleeced by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Paul George trade, that they are now blaming the Lakers for the incompetence of their own front office. This story is actually hilarious, there's no merit or facts behind these claims, but it's the dog days of summer, no news in sports has been breaking whatsoever, so the desperate sports media has spun this non-story into something much bigger than it ever should've been. Apparently, the Lakers broke NBA tampering rules by having contact with Paul George while he was still under contract with the Pacers. Meanwhile, what really happened was the Pacers front office wasn't able to bring in another all star caliber player to match with Paul George, so he decided to voice his displeasure with the team, and ultimately say he'd like to play for his hometown Lakers. This decreased his value on the trade market since every other team viewed him as a rental since Paul George said he wanted to go home and play for the Lakers. Now, the Pacers are salty that they basically got fucked over, even though this could've been easily avoided if they were just able to grant George's wishes by putting a competitive team together, so they are taking their frustration out on the Lakers. Trying to sabotage the Lakers future/chances of landing Paul George is just a sad move by the Pacers. When it ends up completely failing, it'll just be the latest embarrassment in a stretch of awful moves made by their piss poor front office.

This whole tampering thing is total bullshit. The Warriors essentially did the same thing with Kevin Durant, didn't they? Throughout the 2015-16 season players on the Warriors were recruiting Durant to the Warriors and that was one of their only threats at the time. The Pacers and Lakers have no history, meanwhile the Warriors only threat in the western conference was Kevin Durant and the Thunder. Not even a mention of tampering in that situation, though. Now, the Lakers get called out for tampering months after the Pacers traded Paul George. Supposedly, Magic Johnson is to blame for this whole debacle. He's the one under fire, but if I know one thing, it's that everyone loves Magic. He'll be able to sway the investigators that'll be interrogating him with ease, so I'm not worried whatsoever. Also, it's nearly impossible to prove a team was tampering, so unless the Lakers left a paper trail, they should be fine.

If by some miracle the Lakers are convicted of tampering they'll certainly have to pay a costly price. They could lose first round picks, they could lose the ability to sign or trade for Paul George, and then the Lakers could lose a potential piece towards the dynasty team they plan of building. It'd be quite the blow for the organization. I mean the Lakers still have Lebron James coming in 2018, but without Paul George joining as well it'll be tough to take down the Warriors. Still, no evidence has pointed to these tampering claims being true, so like I've been saying this is a bunch of bullshit. Sad the Pacers brought it to this point, embarrassing because regardless the outcome of the investigation they'll get nothing out of it. The new president of basketball operations for the Pacers is just mad he got burnt in his first major objective with the team, so now he's trying to cover his ass. Too bad for him that it's just not going to work. So far there's been no proof of tampering and I expect that to remain the same, so fuck the Pacers and their sad sack of an attempt to sabotage the only franchise in the NBA with a shot to dethrone the Warriors in the next couple years.