Kyrie Irving wants out of Cavs and includes Knicks on wish list

Phil Jackson has only been gone three weeks and already a star wants to land at Madison Square Garden.

Kyrie Irving, a New Jersey native, has informed the Cavaliers that he would like to traded according to an ESPN report, and put the Knicks on a list of four preferred destinations. 

The list of four preferred teams - Minnesota, Miami, San Antonio and the Knicks - actually holds little weight since Irving does not have a no-trade clause, meaning Cleveland can send him anywhere that it can find the best offer.

"Kyrie and I had a meeting with Cavs leadership where we discussed many different scenarios in reference to Kyrie and his future with the team," Irving’s agent Jeff Wechsler told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski "The basis of those discussions and what went on in those discussions are between the Cavs and us. We are respectfully going to keep those private.”

According to the ESPN report Irving made the request directly to Cavs owner Dan Gilbert last week, Irving saying that he no longer wanted to play with LeBron James, but instead go somewhere that he could be the focal point of the franchise.

Irving came to the Cavs as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and endured three losing seasons before James returned to Cleveland and now they have reached the NBA Finals three seasons in a row. Irving hasn’t exactly taken a backseat, averaging a career-best 25.2 points per game and excelling in the postseason - including back to back games of 38 and 40 points in the Finals.

Before the NBA Finals began, Irving spoke of his relationship with James and raved, “When you get to that level of trust and you allow someone to come into a friendship that extends well off the court and you understand how great this era can be if we are selfless to the point where we don’t think about anything else except for the greatness of our team and what we can accomplish.”

But there is uncertainty in Cleveland now with rumors already out there that James could depart in free agency again after this season. Irving has three years left on his contract worth approximately $60 million.

If the Knicks were to get in the mix, the natural piece to center any deal around would be Carmelo Anthony, who has already included Cleveland as one of the two teams he would waive his no-trade clause for a trade. But with Anthony at 33 years old it’s hard to imagine how the Knicks could construct an equal value deal for Irving.

"It’s nothing I can comment on, can’t really share an emotion on, an opinion on that right now," Knicks GM Scott Perry said on ESPN. "So we’ll just have to see what plays out going forward."

The Knicks have spoken of building now with youth and athleticism, which would make it hard to shift gears and include lottery pick Frank Ntilikina or a future first round pick.

“We’re going to emphasize pride, work ethic, accountability,” Knicks president Steve Mills said Monday. “And particularly those kinds of things because  those are what we believe New York fans expect from the New York Knicks. We’re going to emphasize youth, athleticism, teamwork and defense. We’re committed to rebuilding a team and building  a team around the young core of players that we have. Kristaps, Tim Hardaway Jr., Frank, Billy Hernangomez  and fortunately for us moving forward we still have all of our first round draft picks and we’ll use those picks to add to the nucleus of young guys that we have in our organization.”

Email: popper@northjersey.com