David Griffin includes Celtics on Kyrie Irving’s list of desired teams

When news broke about Kyrie Irving’s trade request from the Cleveland Cavaliers, the San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, and Minnesota Timberwolves were reported as teams on the point guard’s list of desired destinations. The Boston Celtics were considered a possibility due to their large assortment of assets, but they weren’t known as a desired destination for Irving, until now.

David Griffin, ex-General Manager for the Cavaliers went on ESPN’s “The Jump” to make his first public comments since leaving Cleveland a few days before the NBA Draft. On the show he spoke of the Irving situation, and mentioned the Celtics more than once in reference to a trade.

San Antonio was the preferred destination according to the original report of the trade request, and Boston is mentioned in the same breath. If Griffin said it once it would have been one thing, but he mentioned the Celtics again not long after.

Another important thing to note is that Irving reportedly won’t commit long term to any team before a trade happens to keep his options open. If the Celtics weren’t sure about a deal because of that, we now know that Irving would like to play in Boston.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Celtics are going to trade for Irving before next season. Cleveland doesn’t have to trade him to where he wants, they will most likely go after the best package they can get. However, if the Celtics wanted to, they could offer a deal that nobody in the league could realistically match.

Either way, Griffin seems to believe that Irving is going to be traded, which is a positive sign to a Celtics team that will have to go through Cleveland to get to the NBA Finals.