After a flurry of signings in the first few days of free agency, things have slowed to a deafening crawl — and the recent turn of events in Brooklyn is entirely to blame.
With two of the NBA’s best players potentially available for trade, the entire league has put everything on hold until the futures of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving ultimately get decided.
For the unlucky players who have yet to be signed, they shouldn’t hold out hope of getting a contract offer until after the Nets settle their dilemma. Speaking to The Advocate, veteran guard Langston Galloway dropped this truth bomb on the current state of the free agent market:
Galloway split time between Milwaukee and Brooklyn last season and also played in a series of Olympic qualifiers for USA Basketball. He has not yet signed with a team for 2022-23 and offers an insight on that piece of his future.
“Right now, (Kevin Durant) and (Kyrie Irving) are holding things up. Once what those guys do is decided, things will fall into place for the rest of us.”
That assessment is likely correct. The 6-foot-1 Galloway has a solid body of work that includes career averages of 8.1 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.
KD and Kyrie joined the Nets a few years ago and are already looking for the door. So far, their tenure together has been defined by chaos and dysfunction around every corner and there will likely be more noise before it’s all said and done.
In the meantime, guys like Galloway are patiently (or impatiently) waiting for a resolution. Every minute that KD’s future remains uncertain is another minute that these free agents go un-signed.
Really, Durant and Irving have the entire league on their knees and there’s no telling when (or where) the dominoes will fall.
