Report: GMs around the league still eyeing Kyrie Irving in free agency

You didn’t think that Kyrie Irving declaring that he’s re-signing in Boston was going to quiet the chatter and dissuade unnamed GMs from letting it slip that they were keeping an eye on Kyrie, now did you?

Brian Windhorst reports:

He told reporters in New York this week that he had already given the Knicks “strong consideration” but had moved on and made up his mind. Next year’s free agency is already moving merrily along with the free agents themselves, it seems.

As any college coach will tell you, a verbal commitment is just that. Also, the Celtics probably will be willing to make the five-year offer to Irving, but that’s not in stone at this point with Irving’s history of injuries and many months to go. Plenty of executives have the magnet with Irving’s name on it slapped in the “UFA” (unrestricted free agent) column on their whiteboards.

Obviously nothing is done till pen has been put to paper (or iPad or however they do it these days). But about the only reaction I have to those opposing GMs is “It is nice to want things.”

Barring those pesky unforeseen circumstances, I can’t think of any rational reasons why Irving would want to switch teams. The money, basketball fit, personality fit, and culture all seem to point to this being the best place for him. Sure, Kyrie’s a different kind of cat, so who knows what he’ll be thinking 9 months from now, but he’s already told us where his mind is now. That’s good enough for me for now.