Richard Jefferson: Kyrie's 'had a much tougher time' with Cavs than anyone

On the latest episode of Richard Jefferson's Road Trippin' podcast for Uninterrupted, the veteran found out about teammate Kyrie Irving requesting a trade.

The Cavaliers' forward gave an honest and well-spoken bit of insight into what may have played into the young point guard's request and the pressure it puts on a team when its superstar begins to hover around a year he can opt out of his contract.

LeBron James led the Cavs to three straight NBA Finals since his return to Cleveland. He stands to make $33.2 million this season, with a player option for the 2018-19 season of $35.6 million.

From Jefferson:

This is what I will say about this, and by the time this gets out, whenever we air this in a few days: I don't know. I don't think that there's a power struggle, like, with LeBron and Kyrie, Kev (Love). I think Kyrie is a hyper-intelligent kid. Really, really smart. Doesn't get enough credit for how smart he is, and I think seeing that the franchise is in flux, seeing (general manager David) Griff(in) leave, the amount of coaches ...

I think Kyrie has had a much tougher time in this stretch of the organization than anyone ever wanted to ever really fully - he's the No. 1 pick right after LeBron, then he has three different coaches, then LeBron comes back, now there's trade rumors, now its "LeBron's leaving."

It's like, at some point in time, anybody would want some sort of stability. Even if it's the unknown, and I'm not saying - I don't know if he asked to be traded, I don't know this. But I will say that he's had a tougher time if you look at, from start to where we are right now, of the ups and downs of a franchise more than most. Even though we've been successful, and even though we've won a championship and he's been an All-Star, there's still so much of a wave, and to be like "Yo, we're going to sit here for a whole year on whether or not LeBron's coming back." That's gotta be tough on anybody, everybody.