Honestly Kyrie is damn near as untradeable as WB. At least WB plays and is a good dude. Kyrie is injury prone and toxic AF. Who would want to add Kyrie to their team and give up anything of value honestly? Lakers make sense because they would probably give up their 2027 unprotected and the Nets could market Brodie and Simmons as at least star power entertainment even though that’s losing basketball. Ultimately the Nets are going to have to settle for picks out of this mess just like the Rockets did. Simmons, WB, Ayton what a ****ed up “big 3” that’s going to be.
Was he the owner when they actually had that with Allen/LeVert/Dinwiddie/Russell? That team played hard, was threading water, but was fun to watch.
I think you're understating Kyrie's value a bit. He's a train wreck of a human being, but Westbrook is a train wreck on the court. Kyrie may be a bit unhinged, but he's still a damn good basketball player who is solid No. 2 on a contender (when he actually plays). Westbrook is a $40 million player who actively sabotages your chances to win games when he steps on the floor. Zero chance I deal for Westbrook if I'm Brooklyn unless the Lakers throw a ton of assets at me. And their cupboard is pretty barren right now.
if I was the owner of the Nets, I would never give Kyrie a long-term guaranteed max either…that fool has played me for the last time so I understand Joe Tsai I’m paying all this money for a 1st round sweep, and after this sweep, the clown who has been nothing but unreliable and an enormous headache is talking about how he’s looking forward to managing the franchise with me Um, excuse me?
I can't remember if Russell was there but he was there before Durant I believe. They were squeezing into the playoffs too
Kyrie destroying the 3rd franchise... He's definitely the one to blame on this one. Both Durand & Kyrie team up & Nets went all-in on them & now they want to be out after depleting the team they had built prior to them getting there & destroying their future picks and saying we're out... Great for the Rockets but these clowns are f*cked up...
The crazy part is durand sees all this none sense & is pissed & wants out because pos kyrie didn't get his long-term contract.
I don’t know he’s screwed several teams now and he’s on a one year deal. Maybe a stupid franchise like the Kings or Knicks might create a decent package for him.
KD cares more about hooking up his friends than he does the organization…he made the Nets sign DJ to a 4/40 deal and was applying pressure to Kenny Atkinson to start him over Allen the second Kyrie doesn’t get his way, KD wants out…it’s pretty clear he never really cared about the Nets and only went there because that’s where Kyrie wanted to go KD is a follower
The allure of the Brooklyn picks was that the team would age and the Nets would be horrible while paying albatross contracts with no means to improve. This would of course have provided the Rockets amazing picks in the 26 and 27 seasons. Durant requesting a trade, has actually hurt the value of these picks, people just dont seem to grasp that yet. Because of Durants immense trade value and Brooklyns disincentive to be bad, we are looking at a bad outcome for Houston. What's likely to happen now is the swaps will be unusable and the picks be middling...15, 17, etc. We are already seeing it...Tsai expressing desire for try hard over superstars, Nets asking for all stars in return, etc. Its also very possible Simmons returns as an impact player. While no one will accuse them of being a contender, very easy to see Brooklyn being a 40+ win team for the next five years, which sucks for the Rockets. Rockets play needs to be at center of this deal to try and cash in now and give the Nets a chance to tank. Any deal should have the following outline: 1.) Awesome young player to Houston (Jalen Brown, Mikal Bridges, Scottie Barnes, Donovan Mitchell, etc.) 2.) Convert 2023 Nets pick swap to Houston getting the pick outright....for two awesome picks in a stacked draft. 3.) Durant to 3rd team. 4.) 3rd team pick package to Nets 5.) 2024, 2025, 2026 Nets picks returned to Brooklyn. We absolutely must give Brooklyn a reason to be bad or we will squander our assets.
The Nets' path to becoming good again is totally fraught. They have Ben Simmons long-term eating cap. They just alienated two stars. The draft is a crapshoot unless they strike jackpot pretty much right away (and with a pick that is not their own, because otherwise it's ours). This is a huge improvement over where we stood until just recently. Don't overthink it. It's totally possible that the Nets muck around as a fringe playoff team, and we get some mid-teen picks. That might even be the most likely result, because it is the median league outcome. I would have been happy with that outcome before these developments. Now it's among the bad scenarios.
All of that can still happen and a team with KD and Kyrie would always be a fringe playoff team so not much has changed. There is a big chance they go the draft pick route and our picks are more valuable earlier. We have a greater chance of being in the VW sweepstakes so anything else is just gravy. I think the Nets are far more likely to do an actual rebuild than just try and tread water.
I think the idea of some "Historic Haul" for Durant is .... crazy. This isn't the MVP Durant, its the guy who shot 38% from the floor and .333 from 3 against the Celtics in a playoff sweep. He's one stubbed toe away from being a contract liability worse than Wall & Westbrook. Then there's the fact that it requires $35m in outgoing salary for a team over the cap (almost all of them) to take him in a trade - That's multiple players in most cases & Durant isn't moving the needle to the tune of an allstar / max salary plus more. If I'm Miami, I might give you Lowry, Herro & filler but I'm not adding picks and really its questionable whether or not Miami should do it. If I'm PHX I will give Ayton and filler in a S&T but you aren't getting picks too. (Ayton is BYC so only half his outgoing salary counts towards matching.) Other teams .... Same thing, I'll match the salary requirement, but you aren't getting picks too because Durant is such a gamble health wise & that contract can easily become toxic. As for a Kyrie haul .... LoL. That dude's already toxic. You might get Westbrook in return .... can't see many other teams getting involved in that flat earth show up when I feel like it crap. Brooklyn isn't getting a "Harden Haul" for either one or both combined.
You may be right. You may be wrong, you nor me have any idea. If you did this you would give up your pick for a very strong draft next season. One thing to consider is the Nets could in fact tank next season. They either keep that pick or they get the rockets pick which will be high.
