Brooklyn is a powder keg: Durant rethinks his future with Irving

Significant swell in the Nets. The team is going to enter the transfer market this summer with a revolution in its ranks and by the two main players. Ben Simmons, still without debut, could be left alone in the worst case scenario. And it is that the two megastars who have the Barclays Center at home, forward Kevin Durant and point guard Kyrie Irving, are rethinking their future in the ensemble that he now directs Steve Nash.

Irving, for a change, is the one who has unleashed the storm. Negotiations to renew with the Nets have stalled in recent days, just when it is most interesting both to tie on the part of the team and to press on the part of the player. It would be strange if he did not accept the one-year extension, which he has in hand, for which he would earn 36.5 million in the 2022/23 season, the last of the last signed agreement. It has been shown with his fines for not getting vaccinated, however, that he is generous with money and could even force his departure from Brooklyn if he does not take advantage of that option of player. Be that as it may, there is also talk with Brooklyn about a possible transfer. The list of teams that had come to the fore was reduced to Lakerswhere is an old acquaintance like LeBron James, y Knicks, to never even leave New York City. Adrian Wojnarowski (ESPN) explore the path of sign-and-trade to leave a reward in Brooklyn and be able to square wages at his destination, although at the same time he says that it is highly unlikely. Y gives more names -Mavericks, Sixers, Clippers, Heat- but specifying that the player’s desire may not be in line with the teams’ preference for Kyrie’s controversial personality.

Wojnaroski has recently referred to the Lakers as the big favorite to get their services. Irving would like a long-term contract and the Nets are not willing to sign him right now. In that scenario the player even could accept a very important salary reduction (from the more than 36 million of the extra year of contract in Brooklyn to a mid level 6 million in Los Angeles) in order to get out of the Nets. The New York team would dream of the Lakers offering Anthony Davis in exchange, but according to Wojnaroski that is not going to happen. If he finally came to the Lakers for one year and 6 million and things worked out, the Los Angeles franchise could offer him the long-term contract he wants in the summer of 2023. Especially considering that at that time they would release all the money from the Russell Wetsbrook’s current salary.

Durant is evaluating the future after this information about his partner has been unleashed. Both were convinced to play together, ended up in Brooklyn and can also leave the ship at the same time to continue looking for championship rings elsewhere. Shams Charania (The Athletic) specifies that this new thought of Durant, who was watchword in the Thunder and finally champion in the Warriors before joining this project, is one more incentive for Irving to seek a transfer once he activates the player option that will soon expire. This franchise has been left without James Harden this year, the missing leg to go for the title, and they have received a Simmons who has not debuted due to physical and mental problems. In the case of the forward from the US capital, he has a route left until 2025/26 with the agreement that he has in force and for which he will receive, possible incentives aside, a salary of 192.3 million dollars. The romp would, in his case, only be justified from a sporting point of view if he sees the Irving operation get off the ground and the winning project the Nets have become these last three years largely fade away. Because in this matter a copy of that skeleton key also has Kevin.

A double transfer of these characteristics, taking into account that KD would be the “biggest in history” According to specialized analysts, given what the Nets must receive to let him go, he would throw the NBA into a new dimension. It would be the opposite strategy to the one they followed in 2013, when they bet on veterans like Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett and that cost them a journey through the desert from which they were rescued, precisely, by Durant and Irving.

Irving’s strategy is indefinite: just start a little more money in the new contract or real possibility of requesting the transfer right now? His margin is very short despite the countless quality that he has in his hands when he plays basketball. The reason is that, if the current contract is renewed, it will only reach the next season and will be completely free in 2023, so it will be an important effort by the team interested in taking it from Brooklyn without having a medium or long-term security. term. It is what raises the most suspicions in all this commotion.

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