The Brooklyn Nets are heading into this offseason with a number of major questions, the biggest of which is the long-term future of Kyrie Irving. As of this writing, there is no indication of which direction Irving is leaning on his player option worth about $36.5 million, but no matter what he does, Irving can hit the open market no later than next summer.
It raises the question of what a possible extension will look like from Brooklyn. General manager Sean Marks has already said that the team will sit down with Irving this offseason to talk about an extension and “see if it’s the right fit for both sides,” and according to a new report by Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News, this is going to include the Nets being resistant to giving Irving a long-term extension.
In layman’s terms, if Irving leaves the Nets, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Durant becomes frustrated with the organization’s ability to put championship pieces around him. They failed to do so at the beginning of last season, with none of their top offseason acquisitions – James Johnson, DeAndre Bembry or Jevon Carter – finishing the year in Brooklyn.
This is why, as I’ve already written, the Nets’ championship hopes hinge on an amicable solution with Irving, whose personal decision not to get vaccinated and unpredictable injury history have left the Nets hesitant, and now, according to a source familiar with the Nets’ thought process, outright unwilling to give him a long-term extension.
Irving appeared in only 29 games last season due in large part to his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. It led to him getting labeled as “one of the absolute professionals at missing work” by Stephen A. Smith, who argued that Irving should only get 1-year extensions going forward. Winfield addressed this in his piece, writing that Irving’s camp would view that sort of extension as “unacceptable.”
