Kevin Durant is losing faith in Nets management when it comes to handling the Kyrie Irving situation and hasn’t talked to anyone from the team in weeks, per Logan Murdock of The Ringer, via NetsDaily.
Irving and the Nets have been in a contract stalemate, as we’ve relayed, as this has reportedly led to some second-guessing from Durant on his own future of the franchise.
At the very least, it has been an uncomfortable offseason for a team that has failed to live up to expectations after landing both Irving and Durant in the summer of 2019. They acquired James Harden not long after that, but he is already gone, having been traded for Ben Simmons in a February deal with the 76ers. Simmons, of course, has yet to suit up.
That leaves Durant and Irving, and the sudden possibility the Nets may have to start over entirely.
“I don’t know if he’s at the stage of leaving but there’s a big uneasiness from not only from the Kyrie side, but the KD side as well,” Murdock said.
Durant may be holding the front office accountable for its handling of the Irving contract talks, and how it has dealt with Irving overall.
Early last season, the Nets decided not to let Irving play in road games because he chose not to be vaccinated and couldn’t play at home. Eventually, after the vaccinated players were ruled out because of the coronavirus, the Nets changed their stance on Irving.
“(Durant’s) biggest beef is that he feels that the front office didn’t grow to understand Kyrie, whatever that means,” Murdock said. “I would push back on that when a guy leaves for two weeks at a time … Kyrie earns the lion’s share of the blame. But I think KD believes that ‘Hey, you guys didn’t understand this guy. You didn’t try to figure out where he was coming from.'”
Murdock added that Durant is upset that the team opted not to retain assistant coach Adam Harrington, a friend who has been Durant’s shooting coach since their days together with the Thunder. Durant is not helping the Nets in their free agent recruiting process, either, Murdock added.
As for Irving, he has given the Nets a list of teams that are preferred destinations in a sing-and trade. That list consists of the Lakers, Clippers, Knicks, Heat, Mavericks and 76ers, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. It is not believed that any of those teams have made it a priority to land Irving, however.
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