Kevin Durant‘s desire to see the Nets get rid of general manager Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash is shared by teammate Kyrie Irving, a source tells Mark W. Sanchez and Josh Koshman of The New York Post. Irving picked up his $36.9MM option and reportedly doesn’t mind playing in Brooklyn next season, but the source says he shares Durant’s views on the organization’s leadership.
“Kyrie Irving hates these guys. He feels that Nash is terrible and Marks is bad,” the source said, adding that “KD came to the same conclusion.”
Irving has more obvious reasons to hold a negative view of management than Durant does. The Nets were unwilling to offer him a long-term contract if he had opted out and they refused to allow him to be a part-time player last season when he was ineligible for home games because of his vaccine stance. That decision lasted until a short-handed roster forced them to change their minds in December.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Shams Charania of The Athletic disputes a rumor that Ben Simmons pulled out of a Nets group chat when teammates asked if he was going to play in Game 4 of the playoff series against the Celtics. Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show (video link), Charania said the incident “never happened” and added that Simmons is “looking good” this summer and the team has “high, high expectations” for him in the upcoming season.
- A few New York fans got to see Jalen Brunson play his first game alongside some of his new Knicks teammates Monday, per Matthew Neschis of The New York Post. Brunson received a standing ovation during introductions as he teamed up with Julius Randle and Obi Toppin in the Nike Pro City playoffs, a summer league in the Bronx. “You have a lot of kids [here] who can’t afford the opportunity to go to a Knicks game,” league director Bernard Bowen said, “so for those guys to come and play in that atmosphere where it’s free for the kids, it’s a blessing.”
- Kyle Neubeck of Philly.com looks at the best-case and worst-case scenarios for Sixers forward Tobias Harris, who moved into a different role last season following the James Harden trade.
Nets are a mess. Which is kind of a shame because I don’t think they actually did anything wrong if you evaluate the moves they made at the time they happened. I hope they get a good return from Kd and ki so they can compete from 24-27 and not give Houston lottery picks in those years.
You could argue that they erred on expecting KI & KD to be adults and team players when they’d shown the opposite on numerous occasions.
Boston fans were predicting that KI was going to be a problem from day one because they saw his BS first hand. And, there’s some deja vu with how Celtics fans felt at the start and finish to KI’s tenure in Boston to where we are now.
KD had shown his weak resolve on multiple occasions and seems incapable of being a leader. To demand a trade like this is total milk toast.
All in all, this always had a reasonable chance of going off the rails. Did mgmt know this and roll the dice anyway? Maybe. But we’ll never know.
Tired of Durant, tired of Irving, tired of Simmons, tired of everyone who is more interested in his personal agenda than in playing basketball. And Silver? What’s his opinion on all this?
Kyrie Irving to Charlotte
Terry Rozier, Kelly Oubre, Den’s 23 1st to BK
Charlotte needs a boost of star power after 2 disappointing finishes in a row to start Melo’s career. No telling how Miles’ situation plays out but Kyrie/Melo/Hayward/PJ should/could be able to get this team to the playoffs. Plus this team just needs to do something positive to make Melo wanna stay. Adding a legend/elite scorer like Kyrie would qualify… as for Brooklyn they replace the pick they traded to get Royce O’Neale plus they replace Kyrie who is high maintenance with the poor man’s Kyrie, Rozier, who’s low maintenance. Oubre would pair with TJ Warren to give Brooklyn a great forward duo off the bench
This situation is a white paper on how to ruin a team as fast as possible
Yawn. Make them play or make them sit. All three of these players are showing too much self interest and the fans are the ones getting hurt. These bad faith contracts from the players are the worst part of the NBA. No need to ever buy a jersey as it’ll only be good for a season
Aww the poor fans with their out of date jerseys lol
If the Knicks do not reach a deal for DM, they could buy low on Ben Simmons. It will prevent them from obtaining a young max extended player tho in the future via trade. So the Nets may be limited in that regard to a team that is not likely to pull such a deal in the next 4 yrs.
They would need to think of him as a game changing missing piece upgrade on defense and be 100% confident in the shooting ability around him.
Tough spot for Brooklyn. One dude is crazy, one dude is scared, one dude is over it. Then you got a dude like Curry who just wants to play for a winner and drain 3s. And a guy in Harris who just hopes to get back on the court and not be out of the league after this contract.
link to youtube.com – The comment section on this site any time KD, Kyrie or Ben get brought up lmao
Whether Nash has lousy in-game tactics and/or just lost the interest or respect of Durant, Irving & Harden, he should probably go. And Marks traded away good young talent & picks for a quartet [including Simmons] of proven head-cases, so he’s no genius either.
Could KD, KI & BS play with Curry/Claxton/Mills/Harris/O’Neale etc, & be competitive in the East with a better coach? Probably.
KD probably wanted Kerr fired too ….
“A source close to the Nets organization:
Sounds legit.
(Please click/read my breaking news piece!)
Trade Randle to Heat ……..
Randle >>>>> for Herro .,…. DONE
forget Donovan Mitchell ….. then Jan 15 go trade for Wiggins. Getting both these guys will be cheaper than getting Mitchell. Freak Ainge ……
No
Seriously…. you don’t think Randle is an upgrade over PJ and Crowder. Plus he will behave if he’s chasing a title. Heat are not signing Herro. You get 2020-21 Randle. Heat are in Finals.
So sick of these entitled athletes.. they got their first head coach fired…now they want the head coach they pushed for to be fired and want the GM fired.. maybe they are right on the GM because he brought those 2 selfish entitled players to the nets and gave away all those draft picks for the wanna be great players.. now Durant made it harder to trade his ass.. make him play or not get paid. He already got paid to rehab his injuries from elsewhere the first year.. Durant used to be know as a nice sincere player.. now considered a horses ass.. cancer
Yeah, both kd and ki really are clueless. They act like their current situations playing for the Nets represent such a hardship for them while the average person has to deal with the real life challenges of making ends meet. Time to grow up because, believe it or not, life would go on without kd, ki, and even the nba.
Wait, Ben Simmons still plays basketball?
The new Chandler Parsons contract.