What Will The Nets Do With Kyrie Irving, Part 26?
There’s a saying in sports management that an organization should never make a personnel decision until it absolutely has to.
Such is the case with the Nets and Kyrie Irving, who remains suspended for promoting hateful and antisemitic content on his social media. The original length of the ban was announced as no less than five games, which would have made Irving eligible for Sunday’s contest versus the Lakers on the back end of an L.A. back-to-back. However, the Nets’ statement also referred to the necessity of Irving meeting “a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct,” of which no one other than The Athletic’s Shams Charania has listed. All we know is that Irving has met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Nets management (including owner Joseph Tsai). When The New York Post’s Brian Lewis caught up with Tsai during Brooklyn’s 110-95 victory over the Clippers on Saturday, their fourth win in those five Irving-less games, Tsai said Irving “still has work to do” before he can rejoin his teammates.
That is, if the Nets still want Irving back on the team.
On its face, it seems farcical that they wouldn’t. The Nets would clearly be a more dangerous team by bringing Irving back—in no universe would Edmond Sumner, who is on a partially-guaranteed minimum contract, start at point guard over perhaps the most skilled basketball ever when factoring in size.
However, there can be no argument that Brooklyn has been a DIFFERENT team in these last five games without their superstar. Irving wouldn’t be hounding ballhandlers full court the way Sumner has been in setting the Nets’ defensive tone from the opening tip. It’s not a coincidence that the Nets suddenly morphed from the league’s third-worst defensive team based on points allowed per 100 possessions prior to the suspension to the stingiest (by a wide 8.5-point margin over second-ranked Milwaukee) since. Head Coach Jacque Vaughn, who replaced Steve Nash on November 1, has developed an active, switchable, and connected defense without worrying about what the sometimes-daydreaming Irving is doing on the court.
Offensively, the Nets have found a comfort with a Kevin Durant-centric base as opposed to a two-pronged, alternating attack. Players are moving, the ball is moving, and the looks are much cleaner. Without Irving, according to NBA.com’s tracking, the Nets passes per game has risen by 26% while their turnover percentage has decreased by 1.4% per game. Irving, for all his gifts, is a ball-stopper and prone to taking bad, hero-ball shots.
The Nets are starting to establish an identity as a team. That can’t be underappreciated. Now, there are caveats. Brooklyn (6-7) has yet to defeat a top-six team in either conference since Game 2 against Toronto. And let’s not put the blame for their 2-6 start entirely on Irving either. Nash didn’t have the foresight to start the season with Ben Simmons, who is nowhere near the player he used to be in Philadelphia, in a reserve role. Under Nash, Simmons averaged just under 32 minutes per game; in the last six games since Vaughn took over, that court time has been reduced to about 18 minutes per game. The newfound offensive spacing has been a blessing. Finally, Durant, 34, may be thriving and smiling through this short stretch, but all his responsibilities on both ends is putting him under a tremendous amount of strain which may catch up to him and the Nets come playoff time like last season.
However, simply reinserting Irving back into his co-alpha dog role will have its own consequences. Will messing with all this feel-good energy be outweighed by adding a legendary talent into their mix? That’s a question the organization needs to answer before making any rash decisions.
Waiving Irving, as some have speculated, would be asinine and should be off the table. The Nets would get no relief from their approximately $36.9 million salary cap hit in that scenario. But it’s not like it will be easy trading him either. His toxicity has diminished his value to a fraction of his immense abilities.
Still, I think it’s the best course of action for all parties. This isn’t the first time where the Nets find themselves asking, “What should we do about Kyrie?” When you also take into consideration his chosen absences due to personal reasons (2021) and his refusal to get injected with the COVID-19 vaccine to comply with New York City’s mandates (2021-22), Irving has more than worn out his welcome with this organization. I think if Brooklyn can get any semblance of talent in return that won’t conflict with their style, it will be enough to appease KD so that he too won’t ask to bail by reaffirming his trade request from the summer.
I keep coming back to Orlando as a viable trade partner (as opposed to involving the Lakers and their own disgruntled and overpaid guard Russell Westbrook—yuck), but I’m not sure what a fair deal would look like. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Nets should seriously do their due diligence on center Mo Bamba, a 7-foot rim protector who converted 107-of-281 three-point attempts last season, though he has been off from deep (29.6%) so far this year as his minutes have been severely curtailed. Would Orlando, a team prioritizing youth, really want Irving as an attraction and be willing to move on from vet wings Terrence Ross and currently injured Gary Harris to make the money work? Should the Nets sweeten the deal by adding Kessler Edwards and/or Day’Ron Sharpe?
As a player who just signed a two-year, $20.6 million extension in July, Bamba can’t be dealt until December 15 anyway. Will the Irving situation need to be resolved before then given the pressures that are starting to build from factions within the NBA Players Association? Either way, I think the Nets are fine with sitting with the status quo until forced to make a move. At this stage, though, it should be leaning towards a move out.