The power he holds is where ever he goes, the Nets likely won't get fair value for him because his displeasure is already out in public. He can choose a contending team of his liking in the new year. Sure, some won't be willing to put up with the headache but he is just too damn talented for a team to not pucker up the bucks (e.g Lakers or suns). We should know Kyrie by now. This is nothing against KD. He just never forgave or forgot the Nets org after how he was treated earlier this year and he was essentially made to grovel to Joe Tsai. He held his cards close to his chest, played his ass off and now it's time to play his hand. Sure it's a different situation, but Bob Myers would have never handled the situation so publically (eg Dray/Poole)
The fact that Kyrie and KD tried to get rid of Marks is a known fact. If Nets gave Kyrie max money, he'd stay with the team. What exactly did he play close to his chest? What's so great about GSW when despite biggest payroll, they are currently in the gutter? Nets having a bidding war on their hands for Christ sake. What power are you talking about
He played his dissatisfaction with the organisation close to his chest after the anti-semitic fiasco. You sure he would accept max money, after the insulting gestures by the front office? Yay a bidding war, for low ball offers because the dude has physically and mentally checked out now. The power is in the fact he can go where ever he wants in the new year and screw the Nets at the same time.
If anything that was close to his chest is his willingness to betray KD, who by the way, stood by Kyrie when that idiot had his whole religious hate fiasco. And then again, he did it once in the summer already, so not sure if that is a secret either. Everything else coming out in public besides the fact that four desperate contending teams are interested and willing to offer first round picks is a spin.
This is partly but not wholly on Kyrie. They want him to sign a contract where he has to win a championship to get paid, that's like the ultimate disrespect. He can get that money guaranteed elsewhere. There's so many great NBA players and only 1 championship per. No, if anything, the organisation betrayed KD. This is a failure on Marks and Tsai.
Sure, it would be disrespect if he was a normal Superstar. But at the beginning of the season no one wanted to offer him max when he was thinking of opting out. Now teams are desperate but they are still "hesitating". I'm sure Nets would've given him full max if he played out the season with no issues at high level. The guy is a nut case and no one denies it - not even KD or he would privately endorse Irving. Irving really f*cked KD over every step of the way
Man.......this next CBA is gonna be epic I think the players are going to get bent over Rocket River There will be The Kyrie Rule The Ben Simmons rule And alot of others
He can't go wherever he wants and get the type of $$ he is looking for. No good teams will have caproom. That's why he is trying to force a trade now.
I'm really hoping for a scenario in which they can't put together the trade in time, get no assets back in return and Kyrie elects to sit out the rest of the season like Ben Simmons was doing. If they get nothing back in return for Kyrie, Durant is as good as gone. They'll definitely get assets back for Durant, but hopefully it'll be a package of filler and draft picks and they'll be cellar dwellers in the coming years. You're definitely not going anywhere with Ben Simmons as your best player. That said, if Durant becomes available I would suspect the Portland Trailblazers would be willing to include Anfernee Simons in a package for him so that Dame stands a chance in his remaining years. I could also see the Timberwolves decide they're willing to trade Townes for Durant and roll with Edwards, Durant and Gobert. I wouldn't mind that so much because I don't believe Townes is a winning player. Jimmy Butler was right about him. I could also see a package out of Miami based around Herro. But those are the best assets I think the Nets could realistically get and I'm not sure that any of them keep the Nets in the playoffs in the immediate future. I honestly wonder if their best course of action would have been to trade Durant and Kyrie both last offseason when Durant demanded a trade and begin their rebuild. I know that sucks when the Rockets have all of your picks, but this year we only have a right to swap picks with them. Even if they got the #1 or #2 and the Rockets swapped picks with them, they'd still likely get a top 5 pick in a strong draft. And if they had gotten enough picks from other teams for those guys (and considering what Utah got one would think that's possible) then they wouldn't even really need their own picks. They'd be free to try to build through free agency in a destination city with tons of future draft equity.
That would be actually good for the league, and I mean no disrespect to the players' union. But anything that offered more roster stability would be fun for fans, just slightly limiting both player-motivated and front office-motivated transactions (IMHO). On Kyrie, I wondered what was up with his recent spurt of sanity, relative quiet, and good play... Now we know!
