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Nets Notes: Irving, Simmons, Durant, Sumner, Claxton, Gray

July 11th, 2022 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Nets wing Cam Thomas isn’t letting the drama surrounding Kyrie Irving affect his outlook for the 2022/23 season and said this weekend that he won’t think any less of his star teammate if Kyrie pushes to be traded elsewhere, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Irving has been spotted at multiple Las Vegas Summer League games, but didn’t attend the Nets’ contests on Friday or Sunday.

“Kyrie’s my guy. Whatever’s his choices, that’s a choice,” Thomas said. “So I still keep in contact with him. That’s my guy. So whatever he does, that’ll still be my guy, my brother. So, it is what it is; it’s part of the business.”

While Thomas said he wasn’t bothered by Irving not showing up to the Nets’ Summer League games, he did praise three-time All-Star Ben Simmons for coming out to watch some of his young teammates on Sunday vs. Philadelphia.

“Yeah that’s big to have somebody of that stature come out and support us as the young guys. That makes us feel good. It makes us happy to play,” Thomas said. “So kudos to Ben for coming out here and watching us play.”

Here’s more on the Nets:

Nets general manager Sean Marks and Heat GM Andy Elisburg were seen talking in Las Vegas on Monday, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter links), who says the two GMs are “going beyond cursory conversation” by dining together. Miami is, of course, considered one of Kevin Durant‘s preferred landing spots, so any discussions between the two front offices are worth keeping an eye on.
The new contract Edmond Sumner signed with the Nets is a two-year, minimum-salary contract, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, who tweets that the second year is non-guaranteed.
Nic Claxton‘s new two-year contract with Brooklyn, initially reported to be worth $20MM, actually has a base value of $17.25MM, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. The deal includes $2,587,500 in total unlikely incentives, so if Claxton earns all those bonuses, he could end up making nearly $20MM across the two seasons.
A second-round pick in 2021, forward RaiQuan Gray signed a G League contract and spent his rookie season with the Long Island Nets in the G League, so Brooklyn still controls his NBA rights. As Lewis writes for The New York Post, Gray has worked hard to get into better shape and show the Nets that he deserves a shot at an NBA roster spot this fall.

Latest On Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving

July 10th, 2022 at 11:57am CST by Arthur Hill

Trade talks involving Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving remain stagnant even with all the league’s general managers gathered together in Las Vegas, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The Nets are determined to be patient and won’t give up either player without getting what they want in return, Lewis adds.

Lewis describes any Durant discussions as being “just at the talking stage, and likely the not-too-serious kind.” He states that Brooklyn is focused on moving Durant first because the Lakers appear to be the only real market for Irving and the Nets would have to take back Russell Westbrook‘s $47MM salary, which could limit flexibility in a Durant deal.

Rumors involving the Warriors as a potential landing spot for Durant seem to have cooled, Lewis notes. Stephen Curry addressed the situation indirectly on Saturday, dismissing “the rumor mill” and adding, “I like where we’re at” in terms of the current roster.

Here are a few more notes related to Durant and Irving:

No matter what the return is, the Durant era will be remembered as a “catastrophic failure” for Nets management, Lewis adds in a separate piece. Although the process could drag out for weeks or even months, Lewis doesn’t believe speculation that Durant and Irving might eventually play for Brooklyn again or claims that the Raptors wouldn’t part with Scottie Barnes in a Durant deal.
The Nets and the teams that they’re talking to are all being cautious about putting a Durant trade together, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who adds that there’s no guarantee a deal will be reached before the end of Summer League. “If you’re the Nets, you can get a sense of how far some teams are going to go,” Wojnarowski said, “and if you’ve feel like they’ve gone as far as they’re going to go with you, is that good enough for Kevin Durant? Because in any scenario you’re probably not getting value for Kevin Durant. There’s no deal where you can say, ‘Hey, we’re better for this. It’s just the best you can get. And again with the four years left on his contract, you could wait it out.”
Durant is refusing to listen to recruiting pitches from other players around the league, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports said on a recent Posted Up podcast. Other than occasional posts on Twitter, Durant isn’t in contact with anyone outside of his inner circle, Haynes adds. “Numerous stars have been trying to get in touch with him to pick his brain to see if he would consider other avenues,” Haynes said. “Just want to get a sense of what he’s thinking. … KD has gone dark. He’s not talking to anybody. Not answering anybody’s phone calls, not responding to texts, KD has gone dark.”
The Lakers may be divided over whether to pursue Irving at all, Jovan Buha said on the The Athletic NBA Show podcast. Buha has heard that LeBron James wants to trade for Irving, but others in the organization would rather use their assets to try to get Buddy Hield and Myles Turner from the Pacers.

Nets Notes: Simmons, Thomas, Duke, Free Agency

July 9th, 2022 at 4:00pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Though his two All-Star Nets colleagues Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving could very well be on the move this summer, a trade for injured All-Defensive Team Brooklyn guard Ben Simmons remains very unlikely, Brooklyn sources inform Brian Lewis of the New York Post.

Simmons missed the entire 2021/22 season due to mental health issues and a back injury that required surgery. Sources tell Lewis, who notes that Simmons is on track to rejoin Brooklyn in time for the team’s training camp this fall, that the former No. 1 overall pick has little trade value at present. The three-time All-Star, still just 25, holds career averages of 15.9 PPG, 8.1 RPG, and 7.7 APG.

There’s more out of Brooklyn:

Several teams have contacted the Nets about potential deals for second-year player Cam Thomas, Lewis writes in another story for the New York Post. According to Lewis, a Thomas trade may fetch a first-round draft pick for Brooklyn, should the team want to move off the 20-year-old shooting guard. Across 67 games with the Nets, Thomas averaged 8.5 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 1.5 APG in just 17.6 MPG.
After going undrafted in 2021 out of Providence, point guard David Duke Jr. impressed the Nets on a two-way deal. This summer, he has thus far passed on an offer from Brooklyn for a second two-way contract (presumably the standard two-way QO that includes a $50K partial guarantee) in the hopes of instead being signed to a standard deal to join the team’s 15-man roster, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “Well, you know, I’m always going to strive for the most that I can get, right?” Duke said of his reasoning. “So if there’s a roster spot to strive for that, then whatever happens from there, happens… But like I said, I’m just out here [in Summer League] trying to play the best that I can, show what I can bring to Brooklyn, to whoever.”
The Nets are thus far the biggest losers in free agency this year, opines Kevin Pelton of ESPN (YouTube link). That issue may have more to do with the team’s top stars potentially wanting to be traded off the team more so than its fairly minimal free agent signings. “No matter how this Durant situation plays out, even if they’re able to retain him… still you’re going to have Kyrie Irving’s situation hanging over their entire season,” Pelton said. “And it’s also kind of affected their ability to make moves so far this offseason,” Pelton added. While Pelton applauded their low-risk signing of T.J. Warren to a one-year contract, he was less enthused about another big Brooklyn transaction. “[I] wasn’t a big fan of their trade to send a first-round pick to Utah for Royce O’Neale. People are going to describe O’Neale as a 3-and-D player, but the defense part of that equation has been lacking the last couple of seasons.”

Celtics Notes: Bryant, Trade Exception, Tax, Horford, Davison

July 7th, 2022 at 12:55pm CST by Rory Maher

The Celtics had an open offer out to Thomas Bryant to fill the backup center spot in the rotation, team sources tell Jared Weiss of The Athletic, but Bryant opted to join the Lakers on a one-year, minimum-salary deal because he has a chance to become the starting center. Other teams that were interested in Bryant’s services included the Raptors, Bucks and Jazz, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who reported that Bryant was signing with Los Angeles.

Weiss writes that Bryant was taking a wait-and-see approach to how the Kevin Durant situation might play out in case another opportunity arose, but he decided to accept the Lakers’ offer before it disappeared. As Weiss relays, with Bryant off the board and the free agent center options either aging or relatively unproven, it remains to be seen which player Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens might find to fill the backup role.

Here are a few more notes from Weiss about Boston’s plans for the rest of the roster:

The Celtics are still considering ways to use the $17,142,857 traded player exception (created by the Evan Fournier sign-and-trade to New York last summer) that expires on July 18, as our tracker shows. However, Weiss reports that the team is unlikely to use it on a high-salary player due to luxury tax concerns. According to Danny Leroux of The Athletic, Boston is $20.2MM over the tax line with 12 players on the standard roster, which amounts to a $45.8MM tax bill. If the team used the full $17.1MM trade exception, that bill would nearly triple, per The Athletic.
The backup center spot will be important for next season because the Celtics plan to limit Al Horford‘s minutes in the regular season, including sitting out “most” back-to-backs, team sources tell Weiss. Horford turned 36 last month and appeared in 92 games last season (regular season and postseason combined), so ensuring that he’s as spry as he was in the playoffs in 2021/22 is certainly a logical move for a team that hopes to compete for a title again next season.
JD Davison, whom the Celtics selected 53rd in the draft a couple of weeks ago, will sign a two-way deal with Boston, but sources tell Weiss that Davison will be given the opportunity to earn a standard roster spot over the coming months. Brodric Thomas, who was on a two-way contract with the Celtics last season and is currently a restricted free agent, will also be given a chance to win one of the final roster spots, according to Weiss.

Trade/FA Rumors: Mitchell, Durant, Ayton, Pacers

July 7th, 2022 at 10:23am CST by Luke Adams

After reporting on The Hoop Collective (video link) earlier this week that Donovan Mitchell inquired about the Jazz‘s plan following the team’s trades of Rudy Gobert and Royce O’Neale, Brian Windhorst said during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up on Thursday that the star guard is not believed to be on the verge of asking for a trade (video link).

“After the Gobert trade, there was a belief that maybe Mitchell would be next, and maybe at some point he will be,” Windhorst said. “But for now the Jazz are telling people they don’t intend to trade him, and on Mitchell’s side, he’s going to stand pat. He’s not going to force any action right now.”

Reports at the time of the Gobert trade indicated that the Jazz planned to retool their roster around Mitchell, while subsequent reporting suggested teams still believed the 25-year-old could be had for the right price. If Mitchell doesn’t express any desire to leave Utah, it seems very unlikely that the Jazz will move him this offseason.

Here are a few more trade and free agency rumors from around the NBA:

Although ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski still believes a Kevin Durant trade is likely to happen, he said during an appearance on NBA Today (video link) that it’s “absolutely” possible the former MVP could end up remaining with the Nets into the fall. “Brooklyn, they don’t have to take a deal that they don’t want to do. They don’t have to talk themselves into a deal,” Wojnarowski said. “At the same time, Kevin Durant, as he looks at the situation, could he look at it differently over time? That’s certainly a possibility.” Wojnarowski explained that he believes Durant could have second thoughts about his trade request if his potential new team would have to gut its roster to trade for him.
During an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up on Thursday (video link), Windhorst said the Durant sweepstakes may not be creating the frenzy the Nets had hoped for. “When the Nets put him on the market, I think they thought there was going to be a tremendous bidding war,” Windhorst said. “And while there’s a lot of interest, from what I can tell that bidding war isn’t really hot right now. The teams have made their offers and they don’t really feel the need to increase them.”
According to Windhorst, the return Utah received in the Gobert trade has complicated the Durant negotiations: “The Nets responded (to the Gobert trade) by saying, ‘The price for Durant just went higher,’ and the rest of the league is kind of saying, ‘We don’t think so. We don’t want to pay that price. We didn’t like that trade,'” Windhorst acknowledged that talks could heat up when team executives gather at Las Vegas for Summer League starting this week.
John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) believes we may see action on the Deandre Ayton front before the end of the week, adding that he has heard “rumblings” about the possibility of the Pacers signing the Suns‘ restricted free agent center to an offer sheet.

Fischer’s Latest: Ayton, Durant, S. Barnes, Kyrie

July 6th, 2022 at 10:16am CST by Luke Adams

Deandre Ayton appears to have been the free agent most directly affected by the ongoing Kevin Durant sweepstakes, writes Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report.

As Fischer outlines, Ayton’s restricted free agency has been stalled in part because he could theoretically be an outgoing piece in a Suns deal for Durant and also because teams with interest in both players – including Toronto – won’t want to give up assets in a sign-and-trade for Ayton before seeing what happens with Durant.

According to Fischer, the Pacers and Raptors have been the teams most frequently linked to Ayton, with the Jazz described as a less likely destination for the young center. The Pacers and Spurs are the only teams that have the cap flexibility necessary to realistically extend an offer sheet to Ayton. It’s unclear whether he’d rather try to pursue a deal with one of them or wait for a possible sign-and-trade opportunity to a team closer to contention, Fischer says.

One hypothetical scenario is a multi-team trade that sends Durant to Phoenix; Ayton to Indiana in a sign-and-trade; and Myles Turner, multiple Suns wings, and draft capital to Brooklyn. However, Fischer hears from sources that such a package is unlikely to meet the Nets’ high asking price for Durant.

Here’s more from Fischer:

League personnel have begun to discuss the possibility of the Nets simply hanging onto Durant and Kyrie Irving into the regular season, according to Fischer. “Rudy Gobert getting traded for an arm, a leg and two mountains is helping their cause. There’s no way the Nets will ever trade Kevin Durant for anything less than what Rudy Gobert got Utah,” a Western Conference executive told Fischer. “If nothing comes, I can see them saying (to the players), ‘We just all have to come back.’ If I’m them, I just try to string this out as long as possible.”
As has been previously reported, there’s skepticism that the Suns will be able to build a package that appeals to the Nets without getting at least one more team involved. “Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and five picks still isn’t enough to me for KD,” one GM said to Bleacher Report.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell Fischer that the Raptors remain unwilling to part with Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes.
Fischer’s league sources “strongly discounted” the idea that either the Mavericks or Sixers is a serious suitor for Irving. The Lakers remain Brooklyn’s most obvious trade partner for Kyrie, but there’s a sense that they may need to involve a third team to meet the Nets‘ asking price — a package of Russell Westbrook and draft assets wouldn’t maximize Brooklyn’s chances of contending in the short term, Fischer explains.

Latest On Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving

July 6th, 2022 at 9:30am CST by Luke Adams

Both Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (appearing on NBA Today) and Shams Charania of The Athletic (appearing on The Pat McAfee Show) stressed on Tuesday that the Nets‘ trade of Kevin Durant could take some time, with the team in no rush to make a deal.

While Wojnarowski observed that being able to have face-to-face conversations with other teams at the Las Vegas Summer League starting this week could help the Nets gather some momentum toward an agreement, he and Charania both noted that many past superstar trades – such as James Harden to Brooklyn or Anthony Davis to Los Angeles – have taken several months to come together.

There has been no indication that Durant will rescind his trade request and happily report to Brooklyn in the fall if the Nets have trouble finding a deal they like, says Charania. However, the Nets have been telling teams that until their asking price (All-Star caliber players and a “boatload” of draft picks) is met, they won’t move the former MVP, according to Charania.

Here’s more on Durant and his teammate and fellow trade candidate Kyrie Irving:

Wojnarowski said on NBA Today that he views the Raptors as the most “seamless” one-on-one trade partner for the Nets with Durant, since other suitors like the Suns and Heat would probably require a third team to get anything done. Wojnarowski said that “people should be watching” the Raptors, while ESPN’s Bobby Marks said during an NBA Today appearance of his own (video link) that he considers Toronto the “leader in the clubhouse.”
Appearing on Sportsnet The Fan’s Morning Show in Toronto (audio link), ESPN’s Brian Windhorst expressed some skepticism that the Raptors will be willing to put Scottie Barnes into an offer for Durant.
Wojnarowski views the Nets’ Tuesday deals with T.J. Warren and Edmond Sumner as another signal that they aren’t looking to rebuild and will want “good players” in any Durant trade. Marks, meanwhile, believes those agreements are a sign that no Durant deal is imminent and the Nets recognized they needed to start filling out their roster rather than waiting for a 5-for-1 type trade to materialize.
Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer makes a case for why he views New Orleans as the most logical landing spot for Durant and why he thinks the Pelicans have more than enough assets to get a deal done.
According to Wojnarowski, the Nets and Lakers are engaged in a “dance” over the Irving negotiations and don’t appear to have made serious inroads toward a deal. On The Pat McAfee Show (video link), Charania agreed, suggesting that it’s not a lock Kyrie will end up in L.A. “There’s no traction on any type of a Lakers deal for Kyrie Irving,” Charania said. “There’s nothing new on that. I’m not quite sure we’re going to see that take place.

Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Durant, Brogdon, Melton, Knicks

July 5th, 2022 at 10:56pm CST by Rory Maher

The potential price tag for acquiring Kevin Durant isn’t what should matter most to the Raptors, argues Scott Stinson of The National Post, who says that determining whether Durant would actually be motivated and invested in playing for Toronto should be the most important factor for the team’s lead decision-makers.

As Stinson writes, Durant’s motivation in asking for a trade out of Brooklyn remains a bit nebulous, especially since he just signed a four-year extension last August. That should concern vice chairman and president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri, because dealing for a superstar who might not be engaged or on the same page as the club could be disastrous, according to Stinson.

Drawing parallels between Ujiri’s trade for Kawhi Leonard in the 2018 offseason to the Durant sweepstakes now doesn’t make sense, per Stinson, because the situations aren’t similar.

Leonard was coming off an injury that caused him to miss almost the entire 2017/18 season, was on an expiring contract, and the Raptors teams led by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan had been given ample time to breakthrough in the East, but couldn’t get past LeBron James. The Raptors finished second in the East in the two years after Leonard left Toronto, so obviously the team remained competitive and didn’t mortgage its future to acquire him, Stinson writes.

Durant, on the other hand, has four years remaining on his deal, so obviously it will cost significantly more to land him, plus the current version of the Raptors is ascendant, with Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes, Gary Trent Jr., and Precious Achiuwa among the new additions who made significant contributions to a team that improved its win total from 27 to 48. Dealing away from an emerging core only for Durant to balk at the idea of staying could put Toronto in a hole that would be difficult to climb out of, says Stinson.

Here’s more from the Atlantic:

Could a lesser role on the Celtics benefit Malcolm Brogdon from a health perspective? “The knock against him coming out of college is that he had terrible knees,” a rival general manager told Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. “I mean, some of the examinations were really suspect in terms of how long his lower body would be able to take NBA pounding. So that’s why he ended up going in the second round, because he was damn near red-flagged. So the fact of the matter is he’s probably better off coming off the bench with limited minutes, trying to be impactful in 18 rather than trying to play 30 and always being injured. The question becomes how he’ll accept that.” Boston reportedly views Brogdon as a sixth man, and he said shortly after the deal was announced that he’s motivated to win a championship and is willing to sacrifice his individual stats for the betterment of the team.
De’Anthony Melton believes he’s a “great fit” for the Sixers, writes Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscriber link). “Once I saw the team, I’m like, ‘OK, that’s a great spot,'” Melton told The Inquirer by phone last week. “That’s a great fit for me. … I understand what this team needs. I understand what this team is trying to do. I’m ready for the task at hand. I’m ready for whatever’s to come.” Melton was acquired from the Grizzlies in exchange for the No. 23 pick (David Roddy) and Danny Green in a draft-day swap.
Signing free agent guard Jalen Brunson was a solid move for the Knicks but they still look like a play-in team on paper, Ian O’Connor of The New York Post opines. According to O’Connor, while Brunson is a good player and the best point guard the Knicks will employ in years, neither he nor RJ Barrett or Julius Randle are capable of being the best — or second-best — players on a championship-caliber team, and unless something drastic changes, New York will begin 2022/23 as “just another barely relevant club.”

Trade Rumors: Durant, Irving, Lakers, Warriors, Sexton, Mavs

July 4th, 2022 at 7:42am CST by Luke Adams

With nearly three months until training camps get underway, the Nets have time on their side and are in no rush to complete trades involving Kevin Durant and/or Kyrie Irving, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said during a Sunday appearance on SportsCenter (video link).

As Wojnarowski explains, the Suns and Heat – believed to be Durant’s preferred landing spots – “don’t really have the ability to do one-on-one deals” with Brooklyn and give the Nets the pieces they want, so three- or four-team scenarios will have to be explored.

“The market is still taking shape,” Wojnarowski said. “I think it’s incumbent on some of the other teams to be creative and start bringing to Brooklyn ideas, going out and seeing if they can get players (and) picks that would put the kind of package it would take to get Kevin Durant.”

As for Irving, Wojnarowski described the point guard’s trade market as “slow-moving.”

“The Lakers have yet, I’m told, to be aggressive in trying to put a deal together to get him from Brooklyn,” Wojnarowski said. “That may come, that may evolve with time, but so far right now there’s no traction really on deals with either Irving or Kevin Durant. They’ll develop over time.”

Here are a few more rumors related to Durant and other top NBA trade candidates:

The Warriors‘ stars aren’t pushing the front office to acquire Durant, but would welcome such a deal if it happened, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. Still, Thompson, citing multiple sources within the Warriors’ organization, stresses that a reunion with Durant is “highly unlikely.” Marc J. Spears of ESPN previously reported that Golden State had interest in the two-time Finals MVP.
While the Mavericks are rumored to have some level of interest in Cavaliers restricted free agent guard Collin Sexton, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com doesn’t view Dallas a likely landing spot. As Fedor explains on the Wine and Gold Podcast (hat tip to HoopsHype), the Mavs don’t have cap space and the Cavs aren’t attracted to the pieces Dallas could offer in a sign-and-trade. Acquiring a player via sign-and-trade would also hard-cap the Mavs, who project to be above the tax apron this season.
Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype considers possible destinations for Donovan Mitchell in the event that the Jazz are willing to make him available, while John Hollinger of The Athletic proposes five hypothetical trade packages for Durant.

Latest On Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving

July 3rd, 2022 at 8:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors are among the teams with interest in Nets superstar Kevin Durant, sources tell ESPN’s Marc J. Spears (Twitter link). As Spears notes, more than half the teams in the league are said to be interested in Durant, so it comes as no surprise that Golden State is among them.

Still, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the idea of the Warriors emerging as a legitimate suitor for Durant. Appearing on ESPN Radio (Twitter audio link) Spears proposed a package that would include Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, and James Wiseman, but the Nets wouldn’t be permitted to acquire Wiggins without trading Ben Simmons, and there has been no indication they intend to move Simmons, especially given that they’d have to sell him for pennies on the dollar at this point.

Without Wiggins included, either Klay Thompson or Draymond Green would be required for salary-matching purposes, and it’s difficult to envision the Warriors breaking up their long-term championship core to reunite with Durant, who chose to leave the organization as a free agent three years ago. Earlier this week, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report cited sources with knowledge of the situation who indicated Golden State is the only team that is not “a tangible option” for Durant.

As we wait for further developments on the Durant front, we also have a few notes to pass along on him and his Nets teammate – and fellow trade candidate – Kyrie Irving:

League personnel who spoke to Brian Lewis of The New York Post said that the Nets are “adamant” about getting All-Star caliber talent back in any Durant deal, and aren’t in any rush to make a move. League sources tell Lewis that nothing is close to getting done at this point.
Appearing on The Rally on Bally Sports (Twitter video link) on Saturday, Shams Charania of The Athletic suggested the Sixers are among the teams to watch for Irving. It’s very hard to imagine Philadelphia making a serious play for Kyrie — it would require either parting with James Harden or moving Tobias Harris in order to reunite Irving with Harden, whose trade request out of Brooklyn was said to be motivated in part by Kyrie’s vaccination decision.
For what it’s worth, Nick Wright of FS1 (Twitter link) reports that there “no appetite” for Irving in Philadelphia and the Sixers haven’t engaged in any trade talks for him. According to Lewis, the 76ers are keeping an eye on Irving and have briefly spoke to the Nets, but he hears from a source that “nothing happened there.”
Charania also identified the Mavericks as a possible suitor for Irving, but Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News is unconvinced of that, writing that Kyrie is “the acquisition of a desperate team.” Towsend doesn’t believe Dallas is that desperate.
The Lakers remain the most likely trade partner for Irving. According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter video link), there has been some optimism from the Lakers’ side that they’re gaining momentum toward making a deal with the Nets.
In his latest Substack article, Marc Stein says he believes Irving is destined to end up with the Lakers. As Stein writes, he has heard “repeated rumbles” that LeBron James is pushing for the team to acquire Irving, and it’s “impossible to ignore the growing expectation leaguewide” that Kyrie will land in L.A..