The Nets have rid themselves of Kyrie Irving and the aftershocks are still being felt across the NBA, but back in Brooklyn the dust is still settling and the organization needs to figure out the direction it’s headed in now.
Trading Irving became more of a formality than a question by the end of the weekend. The situation had soured too much for either side to resolve things and keep Irving in Kings County going forward.
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However, the looming questions remain regarding Kevin Durant’s future with the Nets and what general manager Sean Marks will do in the short and long for the franchise. It’s no secret that Durant and Irving are incredibly close and it was Irving that helped persuade Durant to come to Brooklyn back in 2019 in pursuit of an NBA title.
Durant has been hurt since Jan. 8 and has only spoken with reporters once since then, which means outside a small group of people Durant’s feelings on the current state of the Nets are unknown. He did request a trade out of Brooklyn over the summer after tiring of some of the things going on with the organization and concerns about its direction.
After a tense summer, ownership and the front office were able to alleviate Durant’s concerns enough for him to rescind the request in August. But, that could change now that the Nets have essentially ended their Big 3 era in Brooklyn by shipping away Irving.
There are still three days until the NBA trade deadline, but Brooklyn would likely be inclined to trade Durant over the summer if it got to that point with their franchise cornerstone rather than trying to trade him before the 3 p.m. deadline on Thursday. The vultures have already started to circle, with the Phoenix Suns already putting it out there that they would be ready to make a move for Irving if he becomes available.
For now, the Nets’ general manager doesn’t appear to be throwing in the towel on this season or the noise the Nets could make in the postseason. According to multiple reports, Marks may not be done dealing yet in pursuit of improving the team around Kevin Durant.
And that includes using the draft picks acquired in the trade with Dallas or potentially trading Spencer Dinwiddie or Dorian Finney-Smith. The latter even told the Dallas Morning News “we’ve still got four more days and you never know what can happen,” seemingly indicating that he could be traded again.
Late Wednesday afternoon ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the deal between the Nets and Mavericks had still not been made official because Brooklyn was “evaluating opportunities to expand deal with a third team.” As Monday progressed, the Nets had been linked to the Toronto Raptors and NBA insider Marc Stein reported that the Nets had looked into a deal that included acquiring Fred VanVleeet.
Whatever the end result of the trade was going to be, the Mavericks needed it to be completed by Monday so that Irving could join the team in Los Angeles for practice on Tuesday. At the time of publishing, no deal had been completed.
Help may be hard to find though for the Nets even with the extra assets. Wojnarowski reported earlier in the day that Brooklyn was facing “an uphill battle” to improve the team by Thursday’s deadline and that there aren’t a lot of Sellers.
The Nets moved on from Irving, but that is only the beginning for Marks and company as they navigate the next few days. The Irving trade was a big one, but what’s bigger is what Marks does next because that will have a dramatic impact on the franchise’s future.
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