How KD figures in the Kyrie calculus

Kevin Durant's feelings about Kyrie Irving's future matters more than anything to the Nets.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Clearing Up — Coast of Sicily, Andreas Achenbach, 1847

These things are true:

• Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant chose to play with each other in 2019.

• Durant stuck by Kyrie in the media over the last three years as Irving has received criticism for various decisions that have led to him playing fewer basketball games for the Nets than was possible.

• Durant re-upped with the Nets last summer to keep him under contract for several more years.

• While James Harden got so frustrated with Kyrie’s unavailability this year that he ended up getting traded midseason, Durant seemed to remain on Irving’s side.

• By all accounts, Durant still believes in Irving’s basketball abilities and the potential for a team led by himself, Irving and Ben Simmons to compete for titles.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that the Nets and Kyrie are at an impasse over their mutual future. ($) Kyrie has a $37 million player option for next season. Charania reports that Irving may opt out and test the market given that Brooklyn appears hesitant to offer up a large, multi-year extension.

Brooklyn’s hesitancy is obviously well-warranted! Irving has checked all the boxes of a substantial risk for someone hoping to make north of $40 million per season: lack of consistent availability, causes locker room rifts (at least with Harden, who in fairness is now gone), over the age of 30, middling or worse defense at his peak.

Honestly, shouldn’t Sean Marks and the Nets front office be absolutely livid at Irving’s tenure? Stephen A. Smith said on Monday that Kyrie would hold his own practices with teammates after Steve Nash was done. The gall! Typically, when you’re mad at a person’s whole vibe after a couple of badly failed seasons, you don’t hand them cap-cursing new contracts. Unless, of course, their bestie pushes for it, too.

That’s the biggest question left unaddressed in Shams’ piece. Luckily for us, Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News delved into the issue last month.

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 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.

In this framing, which is smart given the unpredictability around Irving and frankly the Nets writ large, Kyrie has leverage simply by threatening to turn Durant. If you’re the Nets front office, would you bet against Irving taking the lack of a long-term contract personally? If you’re the Nets front office, would you bet on Durant maintaining loyalty to the franchise over loyalty to his friend Kyrie? No and hell no. This is all unpredictable. You have to be really careful or this could turn faster than the Harden ordeal did.

The obvious solution here for us outsiders is that that Kyrie opts in and proves himself worthy the multi-year deal.

Kyrie probably doesn’t have to do that, though.