The conversation about Kyrie Irving and his future exploded on Monday after a report came out that he might leave the Brooklyn Nets over issues with a new contract. Irving himself posted a cryptic tweet after the news broke, making the situation all the more intriguing for fans who aren’t exactly privy to the conversations going on behind the scenes.
The Nets will be looking to get Ben Simmons back in the picture and the thought is that if they can get all three of their All-Stars on the court, then they could finally make a deep playoff run and possibly win a championship. Kyrie leaving would make that difficult, but according to Brian Windhorst, the suggestions that he might test free agency are so that Kyrie’s camp can leverage a bigger contract for the star.
“The league’s perspective is that that was an effort by the Kyrie Irving side to create some leverage. Because one of the things that has developed here is that the Nets have appeared to draw a line in the sand with Kyrie.
“Kyrie was probably expecting to sign with the Nets for a massive salary but now I think in the wake of what Sean Marks has said that the Nets have indicated that they are not willing to go to the same place that he is going.
“So therefore, he has the option to attempt to find other teams to create leverage to make the Nets offer him what he wants.”
Irving has played just over 100 games for the Nets over his 3 seasons with the franchise, something that the organization will be taking into account. Whether they elect to give him a massive new contract or not remains to be seen, but one way or another, they will have to find a way to reach some sort of agreement with him if they envision that the current core will challenge for championships together.
