Report: Cavs to inquire again on Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown in trade

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cleveland Cavaliers are aiming for the moon in renegotiating the Kyrie Irving-Isaiah Thomas deal with the Boston Celtics.

Wojnarowski said on Sportscenter than the Cavaliers were going to ask about Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as an additional piece to complete the deal after the team had further concerns about Thomas' hip injury.

"Cleveland is going to try to inquire about a couple of the Celtics young players, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, who they tried to get in the original trade," Wojnarowski said. "That is very unlikely, but Boston still has a war chest of picks, their own and picks they control from other teams and Cleveland is going to try to get at one more of those to finalize this deal."

Of course, it's patently ridiculous to think that Danny Ainge would surrender one of his top young wings in a deal that he believed was done last week.



Ainge and the Celtics specifically protected both players and reports say that the C's are holding the line at a second-round pick as potential further compensation.

New Cavs GM Koby Altman still has the ability to void the deal with Thomas' physical in question, but Cleveland would face the same issues as the Celtics if the trade was undone. It's unlikely the Cavs could find an asset as valuable as the 2018 unprotected Nets first-round pick for Irving if re-exposed to the market and the Celtics wouldn't want to have to mend bridges with Thomas and Jae Crowder.

Therefore, both teams have many incentives to get the deal done, even though Altman and the Cavs won't be adding Tatum or Brown to the mix.


Photo: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe

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