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Scotto’s Latest: Nets, Bridges, Grizzlies, Blazers, Lewis, Raptors, Spurs

February 9th, 2023 at 9:24am CST by Luke Adams

The Nets have already officially completed one blockbuster trade this week and have agreed to another, but the belief around the NBA is that they’re not done dealing yet. Five executives tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype that they’re prepared for Brooklyn to break up a glut of wings before Thursday’s trade deadline.

After acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith from Dallas, the Nets are poised to add Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, and Jae Crowder to a group of wings that already includes Royce O’Neale and shooters like Joe Harris, Seth Curry, and Patty Mills. Crowder is known to be available, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported last night, but it’s a safe bet the Nets will be getting inquiries on several other players too.

According to Scotto, several teams – including the Grizzlies – have called the Nets to ask about Bridges. In addition to talking to Brooklyn about Bridges, Memphis has spoken to the Raptors about OG Anunoby and has expressed a willingness to give up multiple first-round picks for either player, Scotto reports. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) has heard the Nets would be able to secure up to three first-rounders for Bridges if they’re willing to flip him.

While the terms of the Durant and Irving deals suggest the Nets are comfortable stockpiling draft picks, the team will likely be on the lookout for promising young players on rookie contracts too — league sources tell Scotto that Brooklyn tried to get Josh Green and Jaden Hardy from Dallas as part of the Irving trade.

Here’s more from Scotto:

The Trail Blazers are among the teams with interest in Raptors forward OG Anunoby, and Blazers guards Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons both have fans in Toronto, Scotto says. However, Portland would be reluctant to part with Sharpe in particular, since the team believes the rookie has All-Star upside, per Scotto.
The Pelicans, another one of the teams talking to the Raptors about Anunoby, have dangled draft pick compensation as the centerpiece of potential offers for the Toronto forward. Scotto confirms that New Orleans is willing to move Naji Marshall, Jaxson Hayes, and/or Devonte’ Graham, and adds Kira Lewis to the list of Pelicans players who are available in trade discussions.
Scotto has the details on the draft picks the Raptors are sending the Spurs in the Jakob Poeltl trade, reporting that the 2024 first-round pick will be top-six protected through 2026, while the two second-rounders headed to San Antonio are Toronto’s 2023 and 2025 picks.

Trade Candidate Watch: Veteran Guards

January 29th, 2023 at 12:45pm CST by Rory Maher

Leading up to the February 9 trade deadline, we’re keeping an eye on potential trade candidates from around the NBA. We’re continuing today with a handful of veteran guards.

D’Angelo Russell, Timberwolves

2022/23: $31.4MM

2023/24: UFA

Like many players on Minnesota’s roster, Russell had a slow start to the season, averaging 14.4 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 6.7 APG and 1.3 SPG on a sub-optimal .425/.318/.759 shooting line (53.1 true shooting percentage) through the end of November (22 games, 31.3 MPG).

However, he has been on fire ever since, averaging 20.5 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 5.9 APG and 1.0 SPG on .496/.441/.931 shooting (65.7 TS%) over his past 27 games (34.4 MPG).

Overall, he is averaging 17.8 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 6.2 APG and 1.1 SPG. He’s posting career-best shooting splits from all over the court, including 54.2% on twos, 39.1% on threes (46.6% from the field), and 87.1% from the free throw line, for a career-high (by far) 60.5 TS%.

Part of the reason he’s had so much success scoring lately is because the Wolves been using him more off the ball – he’s shooting 39.3% on catch-and-shoot threes, per NBA.com. It will be difficult for the Wolves to replace the former All-Star’s production, as they rank just 18^th in 3PT%, and he has been the team’s second-leading scorer with Karl-Anthony Towns injured.

That’s not to say he’s a perfect player by any means, as he has always been a below-average defender and rebounder who can frustrate with lack of effort. His decision-making can also be questionable at times, which is why he’s best utilized as more of a combo guard than a traditional point.

Russell, who turns 27 next month, is not making it an easy decision for the Wolves to move him in his contract year. They have been winning lately, and he’s had a big role in that. Do they want to pay him in free agency if they don’t extend him, especially after last year’s poor playoff performance?

Mike Conley, Jazz

2022/23: $22.7MM

2023/24: $24.4MM ($14.3MM guaranteed)

Conley, on the other hand, is more of a traditional pass-first floor general, with an elite 4.73-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. At 35 years old, he is on the downside of his career, but the Jazz have been better (+2.0 net rating) when he’s on the court, going 21-19 when he plays and 5-7 without him.

While he isn’t scoring much this season (10.3 PPG), Conley is dishing out a career-high 7.6 APG, and his 36.6% mark from deep is above league average. He’s fallen off a little more on the other end – Conley used to be one of the better point-of-attack defenders in the league, but isn’t as quick as he once was.

The big thing with Conley isn’t whether he provides an immediate positive impact (he does), it’s more about paying a small, aging point guard $24.4MM next season. His large partial guarantee makes it impractical to waive him, because whichever team he’s on would still be on the hook for a substantial amount.

Patrick Beverley, Lakers

2022/23: $13MM

2023/24: UFA

As is the case with Russell, it’s been a tale of two halves for Beverley. Through 20 games (26.9 MPG), he was averaging just 4.5 PPG on a miserable .298/.234/.760 shooting slash line.

Over the past 21 games (26.7 MPG), that has completely flipped, as he’s averaging 8.2 PPG on an excellent .473/.434/.875 shooting line. He’s up to 34.7% from deep on the season, which isn’t great, but it’s respectable (his career mark is 37.6%).

Beverley’s fit with the Lakers has been a little more awkward than anticipated, but it’s probably not a coincidence that he’s been playing some of his best basketball while two other guards (Austin Reaves and Lonnie Walker) have been injured (Walker just returned on Saturday against Boston). That’s more a product of poor roster construction than anything against the players individually.

The 34-year-old is a natural trade candidate because he’s the only player on the roster who makes more than $7MM and less than $37MM, plus his deal expires at the end of the season. Beverley’s improved play of late makes him more than just a salary-matching piece – the Lakers will need a legitimate upgrade if they move him, even if it almost seems inevitable.

Seth Curry, Nets

2022/23: $8.5MM

2023/24: UFA

Fun fact: Curry is the NBA’s active leader with a career mark of 43.9% from three-point range, good for third-best all-time. In ’22/23, he’s shooting 43.8% from deep.

Curry, who turns 33 this summer, is an impending free agent with an affordable expiring contract. He got off to a slow start following offseason ankle surgery, but he is a very good offensive player due to his elite shooting (he’s also great on mid-range pull-ups).

The problem is he’s only 6’2” and is definitely more of a two guard than a lead ball-handler. He has always been a negative defensively.

Curry would provide value on a lot of teams – the main issue is the Nets have multiple small guards who can shoot and struggle defensively, making his skill set a little redundant. Adding frontcourt size and depth seems like it should be a priority.

Note: This list isn’t meant to be comprehensive, just a brief overview. There are a number of other guards that have been in the rumor mill, including Kyle Lowry (though he seems unlikely to be traded), Russell Westbrook (ditto), Bones Hyland, Derrick Rose, R.J. Hampton, Grayson Allen and Gary Harris, among others.

New York Notes: Nets Trade Talk, Simmons, Vaughn, Dolan, Robinson

January 26th, 2023 at 7:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nets are one of the more active teams on the trade market, sources tell Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.

Joe Harris, Seth Curry and/or Patty Mills could potentially be on the move due to their short-term salaries and reduced roles, O’Connor notes. Beyond that, they could only dangle young players Day’Ron Sharpe and Cam Thomas, their 2028 or 2029 first-round pick, and a future first-rounder from Philadelphia in 2027 or 2028.

We have more on the New York teams:

The Nets’ Ben Simmons says that coach Jacque Vaughn hasn’t really informed him why he’s often been on the bench in late-game situations, Brian Lewis of the New York Post tweets. “I really had no message from him. I think it’s more just wherever team needs,” Simmons said. “When we’re winning I have no problem with it; if we’re losing then I got an issue.”
Speaking of Simmons, Vaughn says he expects him to be more consistent in the second half of the season, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN. Simmons had a 10-point third quarter against Philadelphia on Wednesday and the coach wants to see that offensive aggression more often. “That’s the goal,” Vaughn said. “That’s where we’re going to get him to, where each possession he has to be dealt with on both ends of the floor. Where you feel him on both ends of the floor and he imposes his will and has an impact on every single possession, which he has the ability to do. That’s where we’re going to get to, that’s the challenge and we’re going to continue to expect it from him.”
Knicks owner James Dolan figures it’ll be another month or so before center Mitchell Robinson returns to action, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News relays (Twitter link). In a Fox5 interview, Dolan said the Knicks will have to “make it through the next four weeks” without Robinson. Robinson underwent thumb surgery last week and is expected to be reevaluated in approximately two weeks.

Several Contenders Pursuing Malik Beasley

January 22nd, 2023 at 8:56am CST by Arthur Hill

Malik Beasley is a popular target heading into this year’s trade deadline, with several contenders expected to make a play for the Jazz guard, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy.

The desire around the league for more shooting, combined with a shortage of sellers, could produce an “overheated” market for Beasley, an Eastern Conference executive tells Deveney. The 26-year-old is averaging 13.7 PPG for Utah while connecting at 39.9% from the field and 35.8% from three-point range. His contract is relatively affordable, with a $16.5MM team option for 2023/24.

“It is a thin market,” the executive said. “You are going to have to overpay because there are not a ton of guys you can go out and get. … A lot of playoff teams are trying to figure out what it is going to take to get him.”

The Jazz are asking for a first-round pick in return for Beasley, along with a young player and whatever it takes to match salaries, according to Deveney, who hears that Utah is willing to take on salary beyond this season if it believes the players if acquires can eventually be moved for another first-rounder.

Deveney cites the Heat as among the top contenders for Beasley, possibly as part of a larger deal that would also bring Kelly Olynyk back to Miami for a package that includes Duncan Robinson and Caleb Martin along with picks and other young players. Miami prefers to hold onto 2022 first-round pick Nikola Jovic, according to Deveney, who believes that stance could change as the deadline nears.

Deveney also mentions the Cavaliers in a rumor first floated last week by Marc Stein. The proposed three-team deal would send Beasley to Cleveland, Caris LeVert‘s expiring contract to the Hawks and John Collins to Utah.

The Bucks and Nets are also interested in Beasley, Deveney adds, but both teams are limited in the draft assets they can offer. Milwaukee doesn’t have a first-round pick to trade until 2029, while Brooklyn would like to deal Seth Curry or Joe Harris for Beasley, but can’t trade a first-rounder until 2028.

The Celtics, who nearly traded for Beasley last season before acquiring Derrick White, probably won’t be involved in the pursuit this year, Deveney states. He expects them to seek a less expensive wing if they’re active in the market at all, possibly offering Danilo Gallinari and Payton Pritchard in return.

Deveney identifies the Pelicans and Warriors as “dark horses” in the Beasley chase, with New Orleans having the combination of draft capital, young players and salary fillers that Utah is seeking, and Golden State able to get involved if management decides to part with either James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga or Moses Moody.

Nets Notes: Irving, Harden, Durant, Vaughn, Curry

December 17th, 2022 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

After being described by head coach Jacque Vaughn on Wednesday as “extremely engaged” as of late (link via Mark W. Sanchez of The New York Post), Nets guard Kyrie Irving made the first game-winning buzzer beater of his career on Friday in Toronto, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN.

Although Irving’s game-winner improved the Nets’ record to 11-3 since he returned from an eight-game suspension, Alex Schiffer of The Athletic remains hesitant to call Brooklyn a legitimate contender, suggesting that next week’s games against Milwaukee and Cleveland should help create a clearer picture of where the team stands in the Eastern Conference hierarchy. Still, the Nets appear to be hitting their stride after a slow start to the season.

With the Nets on the rise and Irving’s future beyond this season uncertain, there’s a sense around the NBA that the club could be in the market for win-now upgrades prior to the February trade deadline, according to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. One league scout who spoke to Bulpett said that Brooklyn should be looking to add more frontcourt help.

“Their biggest problem is they can’t defend and can’t rebound,” the scout said. “They don’t have enough size. They just get beat on. They need somebody who can command the lane. In today’s game, they’re not letting you take hard fouls, so you’ve got to have someone who can block a shot.”

Here’s more on the Nets:

Within a feature on James Harden, Yaron Weitzman of FoxSports.com cites multiple Nets sources who say that Harden and Kevin Durant “butted heads” last season when both players were in Brooklyn. According to Weitzman, Durant didn’t think Harden was in top physical shape and told him so, while Harden “struggled to adjust to an ecosystem where everything was no longer catered to him.” Harden also became frustrated with the approach the Nets training staff took to maintenance, rest, and recovery, and tells Weitzman he felt like there was “no structure” in Brooklyn.
Here’s more from Harden on his exit from Brooklyn, via Weitzman: “I just feel like, internally, things weren’t what I expected when I was trying to get traded there. I think everybody knows that. And I knew people were going to talk and say, ‘You quit’ and all that stuff, but then the following summer, the other superstar there (Durant) wanted to leave. So it’s like: Am I still the quitter?”
Vaughn, who has a 16-7 record since replacing Steve Nash as the Nets’ head coach, is winning over Durant, Sanchez writes for The New York Post. The superstar forward stated earlier in the week that Vaughn is doing a “great job” making in-game adjustments and has handled the team’s injury absences well. “I’ve liked the brand of basketball we’ve played on both ends of the floor,” Durant said. “Regardless of who is on the court, we still played our system.”
Nets guard Seth Curry received an MRI on his injured hamstring on Thursday before being cleared for Friday’s game in Toronto, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Vaughn suggested that the MRI was merely precautionary. “We MRI everything now, we do an MRI every time,” he said.
In a pair of features for NetsDaily, Matthew Brooks explained how the Nets are continuing to prioritize the development of their young players while contending for a title and took a closer look at Vaughn’s unique approach to practices and shootarounds.

Eastern Notes: Niang, Sixers, Nets, Pistons

December 11th, 2022 at 5:36pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Georges Niang was excited to get back on the court for the Sixers on Sunday after missing two games due to right foot soreness, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “I feel a lot better,” he said. “I’m excited to get there and play today. So I’m feeling good.”

Niang, an unrestricted free agent after this season, has been a key piece for the Sixers off the bench. He’s averaging 9.7 points and shooting 43.1% on 3-point attempts.

We have more from the Eastern Conference:

The Sixers beat the Lakers in overtime on Friday after squandering a nine-point lead in the final 34 seconds to snap a three-game losing streak. Pompey breaks down the team’s recent struggles, noting that turnovers have been a major issue. “Sloppy, but good win for us,” Tobias Harris said after the Lakers win. “So we’ll take it. Obviously, we didn’t want it to happen that way, but we’ve got to learn from it and figure it out in those moments. especially when teams are presenting that type of pressure.”
The Nets found a way to beat the Pacers without eight rotation players on Saturday. They’ll be close to full strength when they face the Wizards on Monday, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, Joe Harris, Seth Curry, Kyrie Irving, Nic Claxton and T.J. Warren are all expected to be in uniform. Royce O’Neale, who missed the Indiana game for personal reasons, is still not with the team.
Cade Cunningham‘s shin injury has dealt the Pistons a major setback through the one-third mark this season but there are silver linings, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com writes. Killian Hayes has begun to blossom in his third NBA season and rookies Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren have shown major talent while jumping right into the rotation.

Injury Notes: Nets, Conley, Prince, Adams

December 10th, 2022 at 12:18pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets will be extremely shorthanded when they visit Indiana on Saturday for the second half of a back-to-back set. As Ian Begley of SNY.tv tweets, Brooklyn has ruled out eight players, including their entire regular starting lineup.

Kevin Durant (right knee injury management), Kyrie Irving (left adductor tightness), Ben Simmons (left knee/calf injury management), Royce O’Neale (personal reasons), Joe Harris (left ankle injury management), Seth Curry (left ankle injury management), Nic Claxton (right hamstring tightness), and T.J. Warren (left foot injury management) will all be unavailable for the Nets.

Those are eight of Brooklyn’s top nine players in terms of minutes per game, so we could see some wonky lineups from the team tonight. The ninth player on that list, Yuta Watanabe, is set to make his return after missing 10 games due to a hamstring injury, so the Nets will likely be hesitant to push him too hard in his first game back.

Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:

After returning from a nine-game injury absence on Friday, Jazz guard Mike Conley will sit out Saturday’s game vs. Denver, tweets Tony Jones of The Athletic. Conley didn’t suffer a setback on Friday — this is a planned rest game to ease him back into things following his knee injury, Jones explains.
Having already missed seven games due to a right shoulder subluxation, Timberwolves forward Taurean Prince is expected to be out for at least one more week, head coach Chris Finch said on Friday. As Dane Moore of Blue Wire Pods tweets, Prince is doing on-court work and making progress, but still has a ways to go.
Grizzlies center Steven Adams had a Pistons player roll into his ankle while he was trying to corral a defensive rebound in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game, writes Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Adams, who limped off the court and didn’t return, will be reevaluated this weekend, but said after the game that he felt OK, per Barnes. Memphis isn’t back in action until Monday, so Adams will have at least a couple days off to rest the ankle.

Nets Notes: Simmons, Curry, Watanabe, Warren

November 23rd, 2022 at 1:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Ben Simmons, who sat out all of the 2021/22 season in large part due to mental health issues, is still working with a therapist on how best to handle challenges like his return to Philadelphia on Tuesday night as a member of the Nets, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

As Shelburne details, Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn referred to the road game against the Sixers as “the most hostile environment he’s probably ever going to be in” and said it would be a “monumental” hurdle for Simmons to clear.

While Brooklyn didn’t end up winning the game, it’s safe to say Simmons cleared the hurdle — he played 32 minutes and filled up the box score with 11 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds, three steals, and three blocks. After the game, he said with a smile that he thought the boos and the “F–k Ben Simmons” chants were “going to be louder,” according to Nick Friedell of ESPN.

“I feel like I’m in a good place,” Simmons said. “I’m happy, I’m doing what I love. So to be out there and have that experience was amazing. Obviously it wasn’t the result we wanted. It’s frustrating to lose a game like that, but I think it’s a good step forward.”

Here’s more on Simmons and the Nets:

Within her aforementioned story, Shelburne says that a meeting between Simmons and Vaughn last Tuesday in Sacramento helped clear the air and put the three-time All-Star on the right track. “Sometimes I think guys just want to be heard,” Vaughn said. “And so for me to listen to him, about where he wants to get his game to, that he believes he’s going to get it back to an All-Defensive level. To hear those words means that we’re going to work on it together.” Since that meeting, the former No. 1 overall pick has averaged 14.8 PPG, 8.3 RPG, and 6.5 APG on 78.8% shooting in four games (29.9 MPG).
Seth Curry has played in eight of Brooklyn’s last nine games, but the team is still being cautious with him as he comes off ankle surgery. Curry has been ruled out for Wednesday’s contest in Toronto due to left ankle injury management, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Yuta Watanabe, who leads the NBA with a .571 3PT%, has also been ruled out for a second straight game — he won’t suit up against his former team due to right hamstring soreness.
Vaughn provided a minor update on T.J. Warren on Tuesday, telling reporters that the veteran forward is now practicing against players and not just coaches, per Mark W. Sanchez of The New Post. However, it remains unclear when Warren will make his Nets debut. “No setbacks, so overall T.J.’s been getting a good body of work in,” Vaughn said.

Nets Notes: Vaughn, Marks, Durant, Irving, Sumner, Curry

November 10th, 2022 at 9:57pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Under newly minted head coach Jacque Vaughn, the Nets have surged to a solid 3-2 record. Brooklyn seems to be thriving, at least in the short term, under the new leadership, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN. Vaughn had been a seven-year assistant with the Nets under various head coaches before he was promoted, first to interim head coach, and then to head coach in the wake of Steve Nash‘s dismissal earlier this year.

“I was excited for him,” Brooklyn All-Star Kevin Durant said. “I know the work that he puts in every day. I know how much he cares about the development of each player, and this team as a whole. Look forward to playing for him. All the guys have responded to how he wants us to play, so I’m looking forward to how we progress after this.”

The hiring of Vaughn marks a historic moment for the league at large, per Marc J. Spears of Andscape, as he is the 16th current Black head coach in the NBA, an all-time high. Spears notes that the NBA is comprised of 71.8% Black players, per Statistica.

Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports opines that the hiring of the player-friendly Vaughn represents an important move for Brooklyn’s future.

“You could see the way the guys gravitated towards Jacque and his coaching and teaching and charismatic attitude,” a Nets employee told Fischer, referring to his previous stint as an interim coach in 2020.

There’s more out of Brooklyn:

According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, the Nets intend to see if Vaughn will be able to continue winning with the team’s current personnel before ultimately making a determination on how to move forward, be that trying to contend or attempting to retool the roster.
Nets team president Sean Marks indicated that he spoke with Durant prior to making the official decision to hire Vaughn for the long haul, but wasn’t necessarily soliciting his input, tweets Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “I update the players and the players knew ahead of time, but again, Kevin’s job here is to go and play basketball, and that’s what he wants to do,” Marks said. “So that decision was not up to Kevin.”
With point guard Kyrie Irving suspended indefinitely, the Nets have been significantly improved in every way, writes Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post. The team has gone 3-1 since Irving was banished. Vaccaro adds that lately Brooklyn has been actively looking to share the ball and appears to have stepped up defensively.
Part of the reason Brooklyn has improved as of late has been depth. Mark W. Sanchez of The New York Post notes that guards Edmond Sumner, starting for Irving, and Seth Curry have been key contributors recently. “He’ll continue to do that, set the tone,” Vaughn said of Sumner, who missed the entirety of the 2021/22 season following an Achilles tendon tear. “He just makes a difference. He’s engaged, he gets the rest of the group engaged.” Curry, meanwhile, is one of the league’s most lethal long-range specialists. “I still got a long ways to go physically, I’m still working my way back,” Curry noted. He has been recovering from a left ankle scope in May. “Just trying to keep a good mindset of work every day and come to the game bringing energy no matter what. I’m going to make shots, like I said, eventually.”

Nets Notes: Irving, Udoka, Simmons, Durant, Curry

November 5th, 2022 at 9:21am CST by Luke Adams

In an in-depth report for ESPN, Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski go into more detail on Wojnarowski’s earlier assertion that Nets owner Joe Tsai faced pressure from the NBA and from Nets management to take a more punitive approach following Kyrie Irving‘s promotion of an antisemitic film and initial refusal to apologize.

As ESPN’s duo outlines, Tsai hoped the incident could become a teachable moment for Irving, but ultimately gave up and decided to suspend Irving following his media session on Thursday. Irving’s refusal during that session to apologize or outright deny that he held antisemitic views convinced the Nets owner that Kyrie’s joint statement with the team and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had been insincere.

Another source of frustration for Tsai, according to ESPN’s report, was that he wasn’t able to communicate directly with Irving, with communication being channeled “completely” through Kyrie’s stepmother and agent Shetellia Riley Irving.

When Tsai and the Nets ultimately decided to suspend the star guard for at least five games, the team sent an email to Irving’s agent describing the steps he needed to take to be reinstated, including taking training sessions on the dangers of hate speech, per Shelburne and Wojnarowski.

Although it has been Irving’s off-court behavior that dominated headlines in the last week, the situation seemed to affect him on the court as well. According to Shelburne and Woj, teammates and opponents privately described Irving as “disengaged and seemingly ‘in another world'” on Tuesday when he went scoreless for three quarters vs. Chicago.

Among the other recent developments in the Irving saga? Nike has suspended its relationship with the seven-time All-Star, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN; the Nets and the ADL sent a letter to Jeff Bezos and Amazon leaders asking the website to either remove the book and movie that Irving promoted from its platform or add more details about the misinformation it contains (Twitter link via Shams Charania of The Athletic); and Irving’s former teammate LeBron James said he doesn’t condone Kyrie’s comments, telling reporters that they “caused some harm to a lot of people” (link via Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times).

Here’s more on the Nets:

Brooklyn continues to work through the final stages of vetting the potential hiring of Ime Udoka as head coach, sources tell Shelburne and Wojnarowski.
An MRI on Ben Simmons‘ troublesome left knee came back clean, the Nets said on Friday, per Friedell at ESPN.com. While that MRI didn’t show any serious damage, Simmons has experienced some swelling and had the knee drained this week. He has been ruled out at least through Saturday’s game.
Wojnarowski said on Friday during an appearance on NBA Today that he believes Simmons has been a “source of frustration” for Kevin Durant and others on the Nets (video link via Clutch Points). “He has been unable – now he’s unable – to stay on the floor with a knee injury, but prior to that, he has shown that he is a long way away from being back to being an impactful player,” Wojnarowski said. “I think it’s a big part of the reason why the Nets are at the very bottom of the league defensively.”
If the instability in Brooklyn continues, the Nets will have to be concerned about the possibility that Durant revives the trade request that he dropped in August, Wojnarowski said in another TV appearance on Friday (video link). In the latest episode of his Lowe Post podcast (video link), ESPN’s Zach Lowe suggests that other teams will be hoping for that outcome: “The vultures are going to circle on Durant. Those vultures expect the Nets to put on a strong face for a while. To not rush it, to posture – probably honestly – that, ‘No, he has four years left on his contract. … We control the situation, we’re trying to win, we don’t want to do this.'”
While neither Wojnarowski nor Lowe expects Durant to request a trade again in the near future, Howard Beck of SI.com argues that the Nets should blow things up anyway and move on entirely from the Durant-Irving era in Brooklyn.
Seth Curry, who has played just once this season as he returns from left ankle surgery, is expected to be available on Saturday vs. Charlotte, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post.