As the Brooklyn Nets continue to play hardball with Kevin Durant, the consensus around the league is that his teammate and co-star Kyrie Irving will be returning to Brooklyn for at least one more season.
Kyrie has made peace with it, the Nets have made peace with it, and both sides are reportedly looking forward to working together come training camp.
But if a team does want to make an offer for Irving, what would it take for the Nets to consider giving him up?
According to Marc Stein, it won’t just be a collection of draft picks. Apparently, the Nets would want a win-now guy in any deal for Kyrie.
As previously reported here regarding the Lakers’ recent trade talks with Indiana, they did not show a willingness to make both picks available in proposals exchanged with the Pacers to potentially bring Buddy Hield and Myles Turner to L.A. The implication there is that adding Turner and Hield is not believed to be sufficient to vault the Lakers back into the title mix.
Yet sources say that the prospect of acquiring a focused Irving, or a similarly splashy acquisition, does still hold that kind of appeal to the Lakers even at the costly price. Sources confirm that they would be willing to surrender both firsts in tandem with Westbrook’s $47.1 million expiring contract to acquire Irving (although it’s unclear if the picks would be unprotected or protected).
I’m told, however, that the Nets have steadfastly rejected that pitch.
The Nets’ current stance, sources say, is that they are unwilling to send out Irving in a trade if the deal solely brings back future assets. They apparently want win-now talent in return to part with Irving, despite all of the turmoil that has engulfed the Nets for months.
Despite everything, the Nets are resisting a rebuild. Even if they decide to trade Irving, who can become a free agent next summer, they don’t want a hoard of picks that will take years to pay off.
They want to stay competitive, even if they take a step back or two. The problem is, getting that type of deal is going to be tough for the Nets, especially considering all that chaos Irving has stirred up over the past year.
