Nba, Irving exercises player option: future in Brooklyn, but …

“I have decided to exercise the option. See you in the autumn ”. With these words entrusted to The Athletic, Kyrie Irving announces that also in 2022-23 he will play in Brooklyn. He chose the $ 36.5 million option, the one he threatened to leave on the table when negotiations with the Nets on the renewal stalled. But it is a choice, his, that does not resolve the tug-of-war with the team he is linked to in 2019: because Kyrie will be a free agent in a year and his future will be the enormous unknown that will hover over Brooklyn for all season. Because the choice of Irving does not close the question: it makes it even more complicated if possible.

The soap opera

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Irving was about to blow up Brooklyn. Literally, because his farewell could have led to Kevin Durant’s request to be sold. It soon realized that the Nets, the team he had promised himself to (“I can’t think of leaving KD, we have the future of this franchise in hand,” he said not long ago) had no intention of renewing his contract at maximum salary as wanted him, Kyrie had made it clear she wanted to leave, providing a list of welcome teams for a sign-and-trade option which she got permission to explore. The first team on the list was the Lakers, with the yellow-violet fans who began to dream of a reunion between him and LeBron, as in the days of Cleveland before Irving decided to be tired of playing the second and asked to leave in 2017, being sent. in Boston. Except as intriguing as the James-Irving-Davis trio were to the Lakers, it was a practically impractical option. Because sending a sign-and-trade with Brooklyn, the only way LA could offer Kyrie more than a $ 6 million a year contract, would have triggered a hard cap regime, an insurmountable wage cap made unsustainable by the fact that the salaries of the big three would have been too close to that limit to put 11 other players around them. Also, the only counterpart to be sent to Brooklyn in a trade between the two teams was Russell Westbrook, who has his contract and understanding issues with Durant.

The decision

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“Normal people are the ones who make the world go round, but they are the ones who dare to think outside the box that lead us into tomorrow,” Irving told The Athletic announcing the choice to exercise the option for 2022-23. But the soap opera isn’t over. Irving and the Nets can return to sit at a table and continue talking about the renewal, with the agreement to be found by Thursday. Kyrie would like a contract at the most, a five-year contract worth 248 million, Brooklyn does not seem willing to go beyond the two-year, considering that since he arrived in 2019 Irving has missed more games than he has played. Not without losing out, given that his choice not to get vaccinated and therefore not usable for the games at the Barclays Center in 2021-22 cost him over 17 million in lost wages. The volcanic and unpredictable personality of Irving, one who when he is on the court and focused on basketball has proven to be an elite point guard but who does not offer guarantees in terms of commitment to the team, is the main reason why this story is a case still open. And because Brooklyn and Irving will remain at the center of the market even now that free agency starts.