Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are right in the middle of a huge mess with the Brooklyn Nets, with what was supposed to be a team that competed for and won multiple championships. Irving reaching a point where they are actively searching for sign-and-trades for him and Durant thinking that the Nets front office didn’t do enough to understand Kyrie has made a precarious situation worse in recent days.
As of now, the concern that the Nets could lose both their superstars in a single swoop has been talked about. The idea that Durant would follow Kyrie out of the door is part of what was supposed to be Irving’s leverage in this situation. However, it seems that the franchise has put its foot down after all, with Brian Windhorst revealing that the Nets are willing to lose both Irving and Durant if it comes to that.
"[The Nets] are prepared to lose both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant."@WindhorstESPN on the state of the Nets. pic.twitter.com/7faWTkbl9j
— ESPN (@espn) June 27, 2022
“The Nets are putting out there right now that they’re prepared to lose both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. They would rather lose them both than go through what they went through last season, which was a miserable season under the situation that Kyrie Irving contributed to creating.”
Irving’s lack of availability caused by his stance against the Covid-19 vaccination led to the Nets not being able to gel together all season and was reportedly also responsible for driving James Harden to push for a move away from the franchise. The team seems to no longer be willing to entertain Kyrie’s behavior, which he admitted caused something of a distraction last season.
However, losing two superstars of that caliber isn’t ideal either. The Nets would be left with Ben Simmons and whatever assets they can get back for Durant, which should be a decent haul, but not enough to compete immediately. The situation seems to be getting worse rapidly but any decisions made by the parties involved will surely only occur after a lot of thought.
