Kyrie Irving Expected To Return To Nets, After All

While some speculation exists otherwise, the Nets are expected to re-sign star point guard Kyrie Irving, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post.

Irving has a player option on his contract for $36.5 million and has until the end of the month to decide whether to exercise it. Lewis cited league sources in reporting that “an extension is more likely.”

Irving has played in just a total of 123 of 226 games since signing a max contract in 2019, and the belief around the NBA is that he will indeed re-sign with Brooklyn, teaming up with Kevin Durant and presumably, Ben Simmons.

This refutes a report from late last month in which it was suggested the Nets were “outright unwilling” to sign Irving to a long-term deal.

“It’d be unfair for me to comment on how it looks with us and Kyrie, because to be quite frank he has some decisions to make on his own. So he has to look at what he’s going to do with his player option,” Nets GM Sean Marks said in May, via Lewis. “We’re looking for guys that want to come in here and be part of something bigger than themselves, play selfless, play team basketball, and be available.” 

Marks didn’t mention Irving by name, but said that it is all about being a team player.

“You want people here to be part of something bigger than themselves,” Marks said. “It’s a team sports team game. It’s not individuals. We want people to be here for the right reasons, and buy into their roles, find their roles, high-character guys.

“We want to avoid the drama, we want to avoid the distractions. These last couple years here, whether it was expectation set on the team or some of the outside circumstances that were going on in the world, they affected our guys — both individually and as a group — really poorly, unfortunately.”

Irving, 30, averaged 27.4 points, 5.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 29 games this past season.