With the Brooklyn Nets on the verge of implosion, teams around the association are starting to smell blood in the water.
According to multiple league sources, Irving’s future with the Nets has fallen under doubt, and his relationship with Kevin Durant may not be all it has been cracked up to be.
“At every turn publicly, [Kevin Durant] has been there to support [Kyrie Irving], to say we need Kyrie, to say Kyrie can win a title with me here in Brooklyn. But I can tell you, I’ve been talking to people in the organization the last couple of weeks, when they finally sit down and talk to Kevin throughout the summer, they are trying to figure out if Kevin saw what everybody else saw. … The reason that whole season got sidetracked was because they couldn’t count on Kyrie, and they didn’t know if he was going to be out there.”
Now, there is a sense Irving could be available for the taking and the Miami Heat are making sure to follow the whole situation. In fact, according to Marc Stein, the Heat could become serious contenders for Uncle Drew if he officially hits the trade market.
Yet we should also file this away for potential down-the-road relevance: Miami is believed to have some level of interest in joining the chase for Irving — should the Nets reach the point of actively trying to trade him — and would figure to be a more legitimate landing spot than the teams initially mentioned given the Heat’s various trade assets.
In the right situation, Kyrie could really thrive. Playing alongside Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra in a notoriously disciplined culture could be all Irving needs to revert back to his Cleveland ways.
It would do wonders for the Heat, who appear to be just one piece away from true title contention.
