After all the talk and the drama surrounding Kyrie Irving’s future, the star guard is now returning to the Brooklyn Nets and it seems like Kevin Durant will be staying put as well. It was reported earlier that the Nets and Irving were at an impasse and that Kevin Durant was losing faith in the front office for the way they had handled the Irving situation.
All of that can be put on hold for a year at least, as Irving opted into his $37 million player option, which puts an end to all the sign-and-trade talk as well as the rumors of him joining the Lakers for the mid-level exception. In the aftermath of all this, Adrian Wojnarowski provided an update on the Nets and their two superstars.
“Kyrie Irving was not able to land either an extension with the Nets or a sign-and-trade deal elsewhere in the NBA, specifically with the Lakers that would have allowed him to get the long-term max dollars that he wanted. And so, short of following through on his threat to sign the six-million dollar mid-level exception with the Lakers which he could have done if he opted out of his deal, he went back to Brooklyn on that $36.5 (million) player option. (He) really had exhausted all of his leverage and returns to Brooklyn now with the possibility of free agency next summer.”
On the future of Kevin Durant, he further added “Well I think Kevin Durant was very loyal to Kyrie Irving through this process and certainly you know wanted to create the idea that if Kyrie Irving walked, that Kevin Durant might ask for a trade. In the end you know the leveraging on Irving’s side just didn’t allow for him to get the kind of new deal he wanted and so now Kevin Durant has what he did want, which was Kyrie Irving back on the Nets this season. So the expectation right now is that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving will move forward for the Nets on this roster this year. But, Kevin Durant hasn’t talked yet, he hasn’t expressed that publically, we’ll wait and see but this is the outcome that he wanted, which was Irving back with the Nets this year, the two of them playing together.”
It does seem like a short-term fix and it leaves the long-term future of all parties very much in doubt at the moment. For now, at least, the Nets remain contenders for the title and they’ll be hoping for fewer distractions in the coming season.
That is definitely not a safe bet though considering Irving’s nature as he tweeted out recently that it’s legendary to be different. Another season full of tension and drama awaits in Brooklyn in 2022-23.
