Aloha,
The more I think about it, the more I don’t see a Kyrie trade happening this summer. While I always say never say never, I’m not confident. The Nets have stated that will not help him, and why should they? They know he’s leaving so they don’t have to make him happy. He’s barely played so there is no loyalty angle and they know they always have the Lakers in their back pocket in case they decide to trade him. Russ makes a 11 mil more then Kyrie does and to make the trade they need to add to a little extra salary. Why trade another player to make Kyrie happy? Why take on that much money for a player they don’t want? I’ve heard the proposal to add THT and bring back Joe Harris as well. Why would they do that? That would hurt the team. Joe Harris is a quality player and can bring back a better return then THT, like the Pacers did with Brogdon. I think their best move is to enter the season with Kyrie and see what happens. They can always revisit the trade at the deadline. By then a big chunk of Westbrooks salary will have already been paid. And if KD is still there, they might even be contending and keep him. This is a business and I believe the Nets will do what’s best for business.
Michael, I think you have helped temper my expectations of Kyrie coming to the Lakers a little bit. I was getting so overconfident about the possibility that I fail to err on the side of caution. I had to recalibrate the way I was looking at the whole situation after reading your post. It is full of cautionary points, and they all made sense. Thanks for the post.
Kyrie is a different dude. Clearly didn’t care about the money and sat out due to his vax stance. You think he won’t just not show up in this case? He’s a pro athlete, and a fragile one at that – you don’t think there’s a knee that couldn’t use a scope, or some other lingering injury that an NBA doc will sign off on? Nets don’t have much leverage either. That said a combo of oft-injured guys in AD & Kyrie with a fast fading Lebron likely don’t make much noise next season, and there may not be much beyond.
Thanks for the well-written answer, @therealhtj. I agree with both you and Jamie. I am basing my opinion on a change of scenery and the fact that people learn from their mistakes. Compared to the Nets, the Lakers have the better angle to tame him. Also, I have always believed that people learn from their mistakes. Another thing to keep in mind, Durant is not the kind of leader who is suited for knuckleheads like Kyrie. With a different kind of leadership, we may have a different situation. But I agree with all that you said.
That’s a very good point about KD, he seems like one of those cats that does his leading with his play, not by sitting a dude down and giving him some advice.
That’s very true, Jamie.
Exactly. They just endured an entire season of basically not having Kyrie until 2/3’s of the way through. Granted they had a motivated KD and James Harden. They have almost none of their draft picks, same as us. Every good player just re-upped with their current team or did that last summer. They already have a $37 million dollar deal expiring next summer in Kyrie, they don’t need to lose another quality player just to pick up Russell for even more expiring money. They will want draft picks and not ones 4-5 years out but next summer. If you watch the draft special from Lakers Fastbreak Tom was really trying to speak into existence and I applaud him for his dedication to the sunny side of the street but the reality is the Nets will probably work from a strategic place like Michael indicated.
Joe Tsai is done with all this stuff and Kyrie & KD won’t play another game in a Nets uniform. And he’ll be the proud owner of a 40 win franchise for a coupla years. The fact of the matter is that once a superstar player decides he wants to be traded, he gets traded (regardless of how many years left on his contract) and it’s almost always to one of his preferred destinations. The nature of basketball is that when one of your top players is unhappy it has an outsized effect on the entire organization. That’s why the Nets won’t keep them and they won’t end up someplace they don’t wanna be. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see KD expand his list of preferred destinations.
Kyrie will be a Laker by the end of the week.
And KD will be traded by the end of the week.