Next week will be a tumultuous week for Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets. You can start a drinking game for every host written this season and you’ll end up having a binge. It may be empty, but it was his most spiritually important game of his Nets tenure.
A report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania say that one “The stalemate currently exists between the parties paving the way for the All-Star seven open market reviews. ” Irving has until June 29 to select his $36.9 million player for the final year of his four-year contract. Reportedly, he and the Nets are playing chicken to argue over the details of his extension.
Based on Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, the Nets prefer a favorable short-term deal that could prevent a repeat of his 2021-22 season instead of the fully guaranteed maximum contract that a player of his caliber would demand on open market. It was a risky strategy for Brooklyn at the time, but it was perhaps the most conservative way to deal with Irving in the long run due to his unreliability.
The Irving era has felt like it was destined to end in ruins over the past few months, and the organization’s first-round knock-out in a comeback against the Boston Celtics has only added to the skepticism. donate. Irving can surprise by opting in, but right now Irving’s doomsday clock is ticking midnight.
These countdowns to player opt-in often promise explosive ramifications during the period of pending free agent and then pardon themselves in groans. But when was the last time Irving did anything simple or without drama?
It’s fitting that Andrew Wiggins expressed the same skepticism about vaccines as Irving did last season, deciding not to die on that anthill and go on to have a legacy-changing career year. In contrast, Irving tightened his ties with the Nets front office, missing more than half a season and then getting swept up in the final franchise he turned down.
It’s hard enough to survive the regular season’s 82 basketball games over the course of a year without the famous franchise point guard. who imagines him as MLKyrie and voluntarily transform themselves into a sane DNP to pursue fantasies of greatness. There’s something to be said about stability from your guard point, and Irving is forever a twig in a hurricane. You never know where he’s going next. The uncertainty and emotional corruption he displayed cast a cloud over the organization’s title aspirations.
Naturally, the latest news of the Irving and Nets split has spawned a whole new set of free agent rumors. No wonder the Lakers, Knicks and Clippers are rumored to be suitors for Irving’s service according to Charania. Those three teams have been suitors for more freelance agents Bachelor, but only one destination is actual.
Irving in Clipperland sounds ideal. The Nets point guard has more respect for Tyronn Lue, whom he won the title in 2016, than he has shown for a rookie head coach like Steve Nash. However, the Lakers and Clippers have also gone over the line, they won’t be able to sign him immediately as a free agent, so signing and trading will be the only path forward first, but what kind of assets does the Clippers have to entice the Nets with? A reunion with LeBron would be a salvage plot, but the Lakers are tied to Russell Westbrook for the foreseeable future and have no draft capital to hang.
Shuffling Irving with the New York Knicks, the franchise that has become a misguided toy island in Manhattan over the past two decades makes the most sense. Workaholic Tom Thibodeau could be kicked off the pitch by Irving more practice after he leaves the facility just like he is known to do previous season. The nimble Irving joins forces with the often frustrated Julius Randle or an inconsistent RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish’s potential Ponzi scheme, and a nasty cranky Tom Thibodeau so maliciously it could work. They have assets in Barrett or Randle to offer and actually own their 2022 first option, unlike the Clippers and Lakers.
The Knicks have made it a habit of dancing on the brink of disaster, so why change now? Thibodeau’s catch on the sidelines in mid-January after Irving’s return from his annual winter break will give the Knicks loose cannons that could push this franchise over the edge.
