The Brooklyn Nets Should Thank Kyrie Irving For Forcing Their Hand

One of the toughest tasks for an NBA front office is knowing when a team has run its course.

Begin tearing down a roster too early, and you run the risk of those players going on to bigger and better things elsewhere. Hold on too late, and you’re setting back your own rebuild by not maximizing the return on your stars. (Or, worse yet, they depart in free agency and leave you empty-handed.)

For that reason, the Brooklyn Nets should be grateful that Kyrie Irving forced their hand ahead of the 2023 NBA trade deadline. By requesting a trade—which led to fellow star Kevin Durant following suit days later—Irving helped the Nets expedite their retooling process rather than make one last-gasp championship push that was likely to fall short.

When the Nets reeled off an 18-2 stretch from late November through early January, they surged into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference and looked like a legitimate title contender. But when Durant went down with a sprained MCL against the Miami Heat on Jan. 8, the wheels quickly began to come off for Brooklyn.

The Nets lost four straight and six of their first eight after Durant went down. With Ben Simmons in and out of the lineup with back and knee injuries, Irving’s frustration began to bubble over. Irving’s impending foray into unrestricted free agency also loomed large over the Nets’ front office.

In mid-January, Irving’s agent told Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report that she had “no significant conversations to date” about an extension. “The desire is to make Brooklyn home, with the right type of extension, which means the ball is in the Nets’ court to communicate now if their desire is the same,” she said.

A few weeks later, Irving requested a trade, according to multiple reports.

The Nets were “reluctant to rush into a long-term commitment without further evidence that Irving could stay reliable, perform at a high level and remain controversy-free,” according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. He missed a majority of the 2021-22 season because his refusal to get a Covid-19 vaccine made him ineligible to play in home games, and the Nets suspended him earlier this season after he shared an anti-Semitic film on social media and initially refused to apologize.

The Nets offered Irving an extension with “guarantee stipulations,” according to Shams Charania, Alex Schiffer and Law Murray of The Athletic, but that offer “was not well received.” They proceeded to trade him to the Dallas Mavericks for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and an unprotected 2029 first-round pick.

Two days after the Irving trade, Wojnarowski reported that Durant had “been engaged with [Nets] owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks on the direction of the franchise and its ability to be a championship contender.” Less than 48 hours later, the Nets shipped him to the Phoenix Suns for Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, Jae Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks and a 2028 first-round pick swap.

The Nets’ Irving-Durant era ended with one playoff series victory in four years, which is hardly what they expected when they signed that duo in 2019 free agency. Although that experiment blew up in their faces, they did well to maximize their return on the two superstars rather than clinging to a misguided hope of making one last title push.

Once extension negotiations broke down, Irving told the Nets that he would leave as a free agent in July if they didn’t trade him by the Feb. 9 deadline, according to Charania, Schiffer and Murray. The Nets might have been able to recoup something for him in a sign-and-trade this summer, particularly if he wanted to join LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Los Angeles Lakers, although they likely wouldn’t have topped the package they received from Dallas.

The Suns’ interest in Durant dated back to last summer, so they likely would have pursued him regardless of when Brooklyn began fielding offers. Had the Nets waited to trade him until the summer, though, two key pieces of the Suns’ offer might not have been available. Johnson is headed into restricted free agency this summer—although the Nets could have negotiated a sign-and-trade for him as part of a Durant trade—while Crowder will be an unrestricted free agent.

The Nets are lost six of their first seven with their new additions in the lineup, but they’ve won five of their past six, including games against the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets. There’s reason for long-term optimism in Brooklyn, in part because Bridges appears to be leveling up in a higher-usage role.

As the Nets recently noted on Twitter, Bridges had more 30-point outings (four) in his first nine games with them than he did (two) in his 365 games with the Suns. He also stamped his name in the NBA’s history books with an unparalled combination of scoring and efficiency in his first 10 games with Brooklyn.

Bridges is currently in the first season of a four-year, $90 million extension that he signed with the Suns in October 2021. He won’t become an unrestricted free agent until after the 2025-26 season, which means he could be a centerpiece of the Nets’ rebuild for the next few years. If they eventually decide to pivot further into a rebuild, they should be able to get a huge haul for him. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported that the Memphis Grizzlies offered the Nets four first-round picks for Bridges prior to the trade deadline.

The Nets will have to decide whether to re-sign Johnson this summer, but his being a restricted free agent will likely work in their favor. Teams are often reticent to sign players to offer sheets since the incumbent team can keep their salary-cap space tied up for 48 hours before matching.

Injuries have hampered Johnson throughout the 2022-23 season, but he’s averaging a career-high 15.1 points and is a career 39.2 percent three-point shooter. It wouldn’t be surprising if he lands a contract in the $20-million-per-year range, which the Nets shouldn’t think twice about matching. (If nothing else, that contract would be great for salary-matching purposes in a trade down the line.)

The Nets owe their fully unprotected 2024 and 2026 first-round picks to the Houston Rockets from the James Harden trade back in January 2021, and the Rockets have the right to swap first-round picks with the Nets in 2023, 2025 and 2027. In other words, the Nets have zero incentive to blow their roster to smithereens and tank for a few seasons. Instead, they’ll likely aim to remain competitive with Bridges and Johnson while hoping to angle their way into another superstar down the line.

Perhaps Bridges will develop into that player. Perhaps they’ll find a gem with one of their two first-round picks this year, or one of the unprotected first-rounders from Phoenix in the future. Betting against the long-term future of a team with a 34-year-old Durant and a 37-year-old Chris Paul could prove especially fruitful toward the latter half of this decade.

Although the Durant-Irving era didn’t end with a championship as the Nets hoped, they’re on surprisingly stable footing despite their midseason turbulence. They might not rejoin the ranks of legitimate title contenders for the next season or two, but they should remain firmly in the playoff mix, particularly if Simmons can stay healthy and eventually regain his All-Star form.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac or RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.