I haven't looked too deeply into this story, but my gut reaction is that there is nothing sinister to see here.Form today's Wa Po: "Kyrie Irving threatened to sit out with knee injury if Cavs didn’t trade him"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/01/26/report-kyrie-irving-threatened-to-sit-out-with-knee-injury-if-cavs-didnt-trade-him/?utm_term=.ff1f9bc82df6&wpisrc=nl_break&wpmm=1
"Irving needs follow-up surgical work to relieve swelling and chronic pain that resulted from his broken kneecap in 2015, sources told the website. That surgery isn’t pressing. He is averaging 24.5 points per game and looks just fine. Players typically have these kinds of procedures done in the offseason."
Let's say it is fairly routine follow up work that is typically done during the offseason, and that were he to postpone the procedure, he'd be expected to get through the next season without too much difficulty.
I think a player seeking a trade would be more likely to put the procedure off for a year than one who intended to stay put. I think that player's original team would be more than OK with that decision, and the acquiring team would be at least comfortable with the medical situation of the player.
The rest is just spin.
Kyrie will get his surgery in the offseason. All things equal, he'd rather have done it last year (as next year is a contract year for him), but given his request to be traded this mades more sense for him.