If I was the NETS I would call Kevin Durant’s bluff.
KD is under contract for multiple years, so what is he going to do? Durant doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would just refuse to play or make life miserable for everyone, so they have to handle things with Kyrie as if KD was not involved.
You can’t get bullied into doing something you don’t want to do and then regret it later.
This is all according to ESPN’s Woj.
Kyrie Irving’s search for leverage on his contract discussions with the Brooklyn Nets won’t be found with the threat of a $30 million pay cut to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the sum of the franchise’s deepest fears: Irving walks, and Kevin Durant wants a trade.
For everything owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks did to assemble one of the modern NBA’s most talented Big 3s, Irving’s impenetrable connection to Durant looms as a domino to the dismantling of the roster. Brooklyn is straddling the narrowest of walkways: Keeping conviction on Irving’s contract talks and keeping Durant’s desire to stay a Net.
The organization clearly wants Irving on a shorter deal, whether it’s his $36 million opt-in for the 2022-23 season — or perhaps an opt-out and new deal that could give him a raise to $42 million annually on a two-year deal.
In previous offseasons, rival agents and players would tell you of Durant’s eagerness in talking to potential free agents. So far, that hasn’t been the case with him, sources say. Outside of Irving, the Nets’ most important free agent is guard Patty Mills, who still hasn’t decided whether to exercise his $7.2 million player option. Around the Irving drama, the Nets’ environment has made it harder to keep and court role players, sources say.
When Kevin Durant chose this path we all say the potential pitfalls.
The upside especially after they brought in James Harden was that a healthy Big 3 would likely be unstoppable, but Harden is past his prime, Kyrie is tweeting out the WIRE memes and this is all happening while the Warriors are celebrating a championship.
It is indeed Scary Hours in Brooklyn but not for the reasons people thought it would be.
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