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What’s good, family. It’s your boy Sykes once again with another edition of Layup Lines. Let’s talk about the Brooklyn Nets — more specifically, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
Let’s be honest about this — if Irving wasn’t tied at the hip with Durant, there’s no way he’d be a Brooklyn Net at this point. He’s only played in 103 games in the last 3 seasons and has lost himself a lot of money between injury, his choice to remain unvaccinated and just plain being away from the team.
One ould argue that his part-time status upended the team’s chemistry when he returned — they were once the 1st overall seed in the East and barely finished at 7. Ultimately, they were swept in the postseason and looked like a team that didn’t know each other at all.
et, still. He feels like he can talk about “managing the Nets franchise” as one of the centerpieces on the team.
Irving can’t really walk away from the Nets — he won’t find a sweeter deal anywhere else. There aren’t many teams out there with cap space. The ones that do aren’t contenders.
The Nets want to give Irving a short-term, incentive-laden deal but Irving isn’t here for it. He’s looking for big cash and big guarantees, as any star player in the NBA would.
Normally, a player who has missed as much time as Irving has couldn’t play those cards. Yet he’s able to credibly hold his hand right now.
Why? Because Kevin Durant is his homie. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski laid it out for us in a recent report on ESPN+. If Irving leaves, there’s a chance KD might leave, too. And Brooklyn doesn’t want that.
“For everything owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks did to assemble one of the modern NBA’s most talented Big 3s, Irving’s impenetrable connection to Durant looms as a domino to the dismantling of the roster. Brooklyn is straddling the narrowest of walkways: Keeping conviction on Irving’s contract talks and keeping Durant’s desire to stay a Net.”
This is like when somebody threatens to take the ball home while playing pickup at the local court because they don’t like the rules everyone is playing by. It’s their ball, so they get to make the decisions.
Irving is Durant’s friend. It was partially because of him that Durant is even in Brooklyn. Without him, there is no Durant in Brooklyn. And if they shoo Irving away, there’s a chance they might shoo Durant away, too.
Durant is obviously his own man. He makes his own decisions. But if there’s a greater than 1% chance that Irving not being there makes Durant unhappy? Brooklyn will get a deal done. That’s just how these things work. It’s hard to get star-caliber players in the NBA. Losing one is OK — especially if you’ve got a Durant on the backend of things. But losing two? Nah, that’s unmanageable. Irving knows that and he’s operating accordingly.
If there’s one thing to take away from this whole scenario it’s that it’s always good to have friends in high places.
Let me take some notes.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
John Wall just got the sweetest revenge on the Houston Rockets.
They didn’t play him at all last year and it was one of the most embarrassing situations in the NBA. A perfectly healthy player just chilling. Getting paid $42 million to do nothing.
They might end up running that back. He reportedly opted in for his $47 million next year.
“So here’s where we ultimately are with this one. The Houston Rockets will have to either pay the man his money to sit on the bench, pay him some negotiated sum of money to find another team or just trade him to another team that will pay him that money to actually play.”
Good on Wall. The two sides are reportedly willing to negotiate a buyout here, but he’s getting paid regardless. That sounds like a sweet deal to me.
The Connecticut Sun have really had the Liberty’s number in their last few matchups over the years. They’ve won 4 of 5 and they’ve all been by — at least — 17 points. The Liberty won a recent matchup in May this year, but Connecticut -10.5 feels like a good value here.
Shootaround
— A final look at where all the experts have the best players in tomorrow’s draft going.
— The latest trade buzz and draft rumors from around the NBA.
— The biggest draft busts in history for every NBA team.
— Here’s the latest with Rookie Wire’s NBA draft workout tracker.
That’s all, folks! Here’s to your favorite team doing some good tomorrow in the draft.
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