“He’s playing all of you guys right now,” a Western Conference front office executive told NBC Sports Boston reporter A. Sherrod Blakely. “Say what you want about his leadership and all that nonsense, but the one thing we know about Kyrie is he will do what is best for Kyrie. The money, chance to win a title sooner rather than later, have his own team … all that stuff matters and when he looks at all the different options he’ll have, I think he’ll have one of those, ‘what the hell was I thinking?’ moments and go back to Boston.”
And one NBA scout told Blakely that, “I think he comes back and he comes back with an attitude; a little edgier with not just his words but his play.”