Nets Should Call Irving’s Bluff And Make Him Earn His Next Contract—For Whoever Wants That Headache
Nets General Manager Sean Marks made a grave mistake caving to the wishes of superstar guard James Harden a year ago.
Harden, fed up with being held out to dry while fellow stars Kevin Durant (legitimate injury) and Kyrie Irving (illegitimate obstinance to being injected with a COVID-19 vaccine) were missing in action, requested a trade in advance of last season’s deadline. Afraid of losing Harden in the ensuing offseason’s free agent market, Marks acquiesced, sending him to Philadelphia in return for a package that included Ben Simmons, a fragile player physically and mentally who is a giant ball and chain on the Nets’ salary cap for the next two seasons.
I said that deal was dumb then and it’s even more dumb now that Irving just leaked to the media that he too wants out of Brooklyn by Thursday’s deadline, also threatening to leave the franchise in this coming free agency period. It turned out that the Nets would have been better off forcing the Sixers to gut their roster if they wanted Harden that badly. Now Philly is loaded for a title run while the Nets, bereft of draft capital from acquiring Harden the year before, are fighting off another in a long list of gut punches that have been inflicted ever since that once glorious day of June 30, 2019, when KD and Kyrie agreed to team up as free agents in Brooklyn.
The Nets shouldn’t replicate the cave with Irving. The good news is that the organization may have learned their lesson this past summer when Durant initiated his own trade request. The franchise held its ground by not seriously engaging in other team’s pitiful bids while working out their differences with their most valuable player so that all parties felt good in moving forward together.
Those differences reportedly were a lot more delicate than Irving’s, who allegedly just wants a clean, max contract extension. The Nets, appropriately hesitant given all the times Irving has been absent from the team of his own volition in these last four seasons, reportedly had reservations. The Athletic’s Shams Charania wrote that the Nets countered with “guarantee stipulations”, which I inferred to mean games played incentives that would trigger guarantees.
The Nets have until June 30 to patch things up one way or another. If Irving plays well, and he has every incentive to give it his best, he will get paid, possibly even by the Nets. On the other hand, if he continues to provide more evidence of his unreliability, good luck to anyone who wants that headache at an inflated price.
The worst thing Marks can do now is force another bad trade. Taking on the expiring contract of bricking Russell Westbrook from the Lakers, for instance, wouldn’t just destroy any hope of a playoff run, Marks would also have to send to L.A. another player just to make the dollars work under cap rules for luxury taxpayers. In addition, the Lakers don’t have any first-round picks to trade until 2027, if they’d even be willing to part with it as consideration in an Irving trade. Currently, other teams mentioned as possible trade destinations are Dallas and Phoenix, though again the Nets would likely be looking at pennies on the dollar in return for the league’s 12th leading scorer. It’s safe to say that Dallas stud Luka Doncic is untouchable.
Obviously, this news alters how the Nets approach the week to come. Instead of focusing on how to properly bid for a couple of missing pieces (a stretch 5 and maybe a backup point guard) that could potentially propel them to a deeper playoff run, now Marks has to balance those concerns with Irving’s request.
At this point, no one has heard from Durant on this, as he’s been recovering from an MCL sprain that has sidelined him for the last 11 games and counting. I doubt he’ll ever knock his friend Irving, especially when it comes to business matters. Will KD circle back to his position from early last summer?
I guess we’ll just have to wait until the next boulder drops on the Nets’ heads.