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A blockbuster deal that couple send ripple effects for years occured between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. The two teams swapped star point guards and the Cleveland Cavaliers also picked up the Brooklyn Nets first-round pick in 2018 on top of Isaiah Thomas in exchange for Kyrie Irving.
Looking at the short-term, there’s a lot of similarities between the two marquee pieces of the trade. Both Irving and Thomas were members of the 2011 NBA Draft but were at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Kyrie Irving was the first pick of the draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers while Thomas was the final pick of the draft by the Sacramento Kings.
Cleveland and Boston have agreement on deal to send Kyrie Irving to the Celtics for Isaiah Thomas package to Cavs, sources tell The Vertical
Irving has been a bonafide star for several years now while Thomas bounced around the league for a little bit before he settled into his role with the Boston Celtics. Now the two players are leaving their comfort zones and joining different teams. This gives us an excellent opportunity to look at how the two careers stack up against one another. It might be surprising to see that both players aren’t as different as they seem.
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Although Thomas really become a household name this season, he’s actually been in the league just as long as Irving and has put up similar stats to Irving over his career. Let’s take a look at the career stats according to Basketball Reference for each player to just see how similar they are.
| Player | Kyrie Irving | Isaiah Thomas |
| Points-per-game | 21.6 | 19.1 |
| Rebounds-per-game | 3.4 | 2.6 |
| Assists-per-game | 5.5 | 5.2 |
| Steals-per-game | 1.3 | 1.0 |
| FG% | .457 | .443 |
| 3PT% | .383 | .367 |
Both players have been in the league for six seasons and have both been part of three playoff runs. Kyrie Irving holds the edge in All-Star games with four compared to just two for Isaiah Thomas. Of course, Irving has the NBA Championship from 2016 as well. Both players are coming off arguably the best seasons of their careers with Thomas being considered as an MVP candidate and Irving heading to his third consecutive NBA Finals appearance.
Both players are best known for their scoring abilities and both will be expected to do just that with their new teams. Thomas will likely be able to take on a smaller role since he’ll be playing with LeBron and Kevin Love now while Irving will get his wish and be able to lead his own team.
With Thomas being 28-years-old and Irving being 25 it can be argued that Irving has more upside to offer. It’s also important to note that Irving’s stats from last year fell into line with his career numbers but Thomas had a breakout year. This doesn’t mean Isaiah Thomas had a fluke year but it’s possible we could see a turn to his numbers from before this past season.
We won’t have to wait long until we see Thomas and Irving go against one another as the Celtics play the Cavaliers October 17.
