Nets GM On Contract Talks With Kyrie Irving: ‘We’ll See If It’s Right Fit For Both’

Nets general manager Sean Marks seemed mostly optimistic about looming contract talks with Kyrie Irving, though he did admit the sides have yet to talk, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post.

Marks was speaking on the YES Network and mentioned that Nets owner Joe Tsai will also play a role.

“I look forward to [it],” Marks told YES Network, via Lewis. “We have not had a conversation yet. So I look forward to getting in a room with him and Joe and his team, and we will. We’ll see what it looks like for Kyrie moving forward here, and what he needs from us and so forth.

“So, again, it wouldn’t be right for me to comment on what hypothetical could happen, because we don’t know. We haven’t had those conversations with Kyrie yet. But when they do, we’ll see if it’s the right fit for both sides.”

Irving missed a chunk of the season because of New York’s vaccine mandate, but eventually became eligible. The Nets still failed to advance beyond the first round after getting swept by the Celtics.

He can opt out of his contract, though that scenario seems unlikely. But as of now, he is eligible to be a free agent at the end of next season.

So the Nets have to decide if they want to sign Irving to a contract extension. While Marks didn’t mention Irving by name, he indicated that it’s all about being a good teammate and fitting in.

“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.”