BOSTON — Kyrie Irving may have had a disappointing run with the Celtics and run into trouble with his teammates. But his former coach doesn’t have any hard feelings.
“I don’t know there’s anything anyone individually necessarily feels like they should have done or could have done,” Celtics Coach Brad Stevens told reporters in Las Vegas. “That’s part of free agency. You can go where you want at the end of the day.”
Several reports have suggested that Irving and Stevens didn’t always see eye to eye in Boston. But Stevens insisted he has no ill will toward his former star point guard.
“I enjoyed Kyrie. I like Kyrie, and I wish him nothing but health and success,” Stevens said. “I think any time you go through a year like we went through where you don’t necessarily meet expectations … I think there’s probably going to be some change. And I don’t fault him one bit for choosing to follow whatever he wants to do. That’s his right.”
Irving signed with the Brooklyn Nets this offseason. Meanwhile, the Celtics found a suitable replacement by signing All-Star point guard Kemba Walker from the Charlotte Hornets.
THE SAN ANTONIO Spurs have pulled their offer to Marcus Morris and are finalizing terms on a two-year deal with free-agent forward Trey Lyles, league sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Morris will sign a one-year deal with the New York Knicks, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The 29-year-old Morris averaged 13.9 points and 6.1 rebounds for the Celtics in his seventh NBA season.
The Knicks already signed three power forwards in free agency, including Julius Randle, Bobby Portis and Taj Gibson.
THE DALLAS Mavericks re-signed restricted free agent Dorian Finney-Smith to a $12 million, three-year contract, bringing back the undrafted forward for a fourth season in Dallas.
Finney-Smith has been on the back end of Coach Rick Carlisle’s rotation while averaging 5.9 points and 3.7 rebounds in 183 career games, with 74 starts.
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