On Friday Afternoon, News had broke that Kyrie Irving had asked the Brooklyn Nets for a trade to be completed before next Thursday’s deadline.
As with Kevin Durant’s trade request last June, the reactions were quick, some exciting, some angry, but either way, the talk quickly became about Kyrie’s next team, which overshadowed both non-sports news and other sports stories from Derek Carr wanting a trade to the Westbrook to the Jazz Rumors, which also made their return.
But for me, the reaction was different. It wasn’t met with the same level of enthusiasm and intrigue that I had with Kevin Durant potentially playing on a different team next year, instead, it was confusion, skepticism, and doubt. The Question of the day being, Why Would Kyrie Ask for a Trade Now ?
The Nets are 31-20, 4th in the Eastern Conference. True, they lost 3 out of their last 5 games, but the reality is still that this team has a very bright short term future ahead of it. The team is currently without its biggest star, Kevin Durant, but his injury is only temporary, and he will be back, probably just before the All-Star Game in Utah, and when he does come back, if the Nets can add another big man to their roster, they will compete for a championship.
The Nets have been discussing an extension with the Guard since last summer, but neither side has made any progress to that point. Combined with Kyrie’s suspension last October, and there has been hesitancy on the Nets Part. But even so, Kyrie is a top 5, if not Top 2 Guard in the NBA when he’s healthy, and surely the cost of retaining him is worth the baggage, if the result is an NBA title, or two.
The Nets know this, and will definitely try to call Kyrie’s bluff, which leads me to believe one of two things, either, the team will keep him through the deadline and see if they can re-sign him during the Offseason, or, his camp put out the trade story in order to get leverage, which knowing Joe Tsai’s History, will not work.
There’s also another factor in the Nets mode of thinking, and thats Kevin Durant. Durant likes playing with Kyrie Irving, he chose the Nets over staying with the Warriors in 2019, just so he could play with Kyrie, he wanted this union, and may urge the Nets, albeit privately, to keep Kyrie in order to remain there.
But, Right Now, All I can this is that this Kyrie request, doesn’t feel genuine, it feels made up, and I don’t mean it was made up, I mean that it feels like a leverage ploy. Kyrie wants his money, the Nets will be willing to give it to him, but only if Kyrie stays there until June. At the end of the day, it seems like Kyrie will stay, and he will get his contract, but time will tell, and we’ll see what happens. Until then, Keep it here for more updates.