Getty Images Kyrie Irving taking the ball up.
The Western Conference has been the alpha conference for the last few years now since the Golden State Warriors have grown dominant in the NBA. Meanwhile, year after year in the Eastern Conference was LeBron James versus everybody else. Now that LeBron packed up and left for Los Angeles, the East opened up and got a lot tougher all around. At first, it looked like the Boston Celtics would run away with the title, but not so fast.
Suddenly, the Eastern Conference has become quite robust. The Toronto Raptors added Kawhi Leonard who’s playing like an MVP. The Milwaukee Bucks made the most significant improvements during the offseason, which is undoubtedly paying off right now. The Indiana Pacers are once again on the rise, and the Philadelphia 76ers just added a superstar to add to their young core with the acquisition of Jimmy Butler.
While all of these moves are going down, the Boston Celtics have yet to find their identity in 2018. That’s not to say that the Celtics can’t bounce back to the way that they looked last year, but the competition is definitely a lot harder when it’s not just LeBron versus the world.
Every team now has their superstar, and for the Celtics, it’s Kyrie Irving. So, with the way the season has played out thus far, how does Kyrie feel about the fact that another Eastern Conference team just added another superstar from the West?
Kyrie Isn’t Concerned
Kyrie Irving on whether there is more urgency on the Celtics after the Jimmy Butler trade/seeing how the top teams in the East look: “Who cares, honestly? It’s still so early, man.”
Boston Globe reporter Nicole Yang didn’t get much of a rise out of Kyrie, as he kept it very calm and relaxed. Irving won’t show any urgency now that the 76ers have leveled up as they sit 3.5 games back from first-place along with the Celtics. Although the Sixers and the Celtics went head-to-head already this season, and Boston beat them with ease, it will be a lot different the next time they play considering that the Sixers are almost entirely different.
That doesn’t concern Kyrie Irving though. While he is correct that it is way too early to judge who the top dog is, teams are starting to find their identities, and unfortunately for the Celtics, they have yet to do so. We’ll see how the Eastern Conference plays out moving forward. So far, the Sixers big move hasn’t paid off in one game, but nobody should feel comfortable yet.