Shelburne: Suns Would Be a 'Great Fit' for Kyrie Irving If He Leaves Celtics

While most of the Kyrie Irving free-agency speculation has been focused on the two New York teams, ESPN's Ramona Shelburne offered a potentially underrated destination for the Boston Celtics point guard.

"I just see a world in which he goes to the Phoenix Suns, where that is such a great fit for him," Shelburne said on Tuesday's episode of The Jump. "... We tried this this year, where Kyrie goes into a situation where he tries to be a leader, he tries to carry a team to the next level, to get back to a championship. It didn't work. He couldn't do it. If anything, they took a step back.

"So maybe you reset things, where the expectations are lower and you can have more of an impact on the culture."

The Suns are in desperate need of a point guard, so there's a hole Irving could fill. They could also maneuver a little bit of money and get to max-level cap space, which they do not have. Irving and Devin Booker would instantly rank among the most offensively gifted backcourts in the NBA.

Still.

This scenario seems highly unlikely. Phoenix has no history of signing elite free agents despite being one of the NBA's biggest markets and having a recent history of helping reshape the game of basketball. It's also an organization run by Robert Sarver, who is one of the league's most frugal owners and reportedly meddles at times. Signing with the Suns would be an all-in bet on general manager James Jones, with whom Irving has a relationship from their time as teammates with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While Shelburne makes a point about Irving getting a "reset" in Phoenix, he didn't seem to particularly enjoy playing with Boston's young core. Comments made by Terry Rozier on Tuesday seemed to indicate the young core didn't particularly enjoy Irving, either. Irving has also made comments about how he better understands LeBron James' frustrations with him when he was a young player now that he's gone through a similar situation himself.

From what we know about Irving's mindset, it seems clear he'll be somewhere in New York or back in Boston next season. At 27 years old, Kyrie wants to win a championship and be part of a Finals contender immediately. That isn't happening in Phoenix, even if the Suns take home the Zion Williamson lottery ticket Tuesday night.