The drama surrounding the Brooklyn Nets didn’t end with their season, a win over the Boston Celtics. Not even close. Kyrie Irving’s decision to step back into the public spotlight after losing gave everyone plenty of weird quotes to ponder and try to draw lessons from. Ben Simmons has had surgery for a herniated disc in his back, which is very worrying. And now, from Beat reporter Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News, we learn that a potential catastrophe is brewing.
Winfield reported two key nuggets — the Nets are now “not ready” to give Irving a maximum contract extension and Kevin Durant hasn’t spoken to the Brooklyn front office since he was sent home for the summer by the Celtics.
Winfield also points out that Irving won’t settle for some sort of short-term deal that pays him well while allowing the Nets flexibility in the future. If he decides to exercise his player option this summer and goes into next year on an expiring contract, one wrong move could result in an injury that will severely limit his future earning potential. Irving’s talent alone gives him the ability to demand a more appropriate arrangement – and now it seems he also has Durant to bargain for. That’s not necessarily new information, but it now seems almost certain that Durant’s opinion of his erratic teammate hasn’t changed enough to be open to a major change.
So Brooklyn is in an unenviable position. The Nets can either pay Irving more than $200 million over the next four years and keep their fingers crossed that he isn’t injured or come to Jesus at that moment leads to another layoff. Or they challenge him to move away from his player option, risking the wrath of Durant and not changing their ability to change the roster this offseason.
Neither option seems great. Obviously, having Durant and Irving on the court together is enough to cover most basketball troubles, but Irving showed us last year that basketball troubles are the least of the Nets’ worries. And they were both on the court throughout this year’s postseason run, which ended after four games. Durant and Irving are very good as a couple, but it’s a team sport. The Nets need to hope for better health and provide them with more aid, but have very few options to do so, with or without Irving.
It’s hard to see it as anything other than a brewing disaster. If Durant was willing to use Irving to improve the roster in any way, that would help. But it seems the two are still a package deal. And the Nets have to face that fact, even if they’re not ready to make a massive deal for the point guard right now. If Durant says he’s gone when Irving is, there’s only one thing to do.
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