Nets All-Star forward Kevin Durant is trying to stay optimistic as the Kyrie Irving situation drags on, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes. Irving can’t practice at the team’s facility and will have to miss more than half of its games unless he changes his mind and gets vaccinated. Durant believes Irving will eventually rejoin his teammates.
“I’m envisioning Kyrie being a part of our team,” Durant said. “Maybe I’m just naïve, but that is just how I feel. But I think everybody here has that confidence in themselves, in our group, that if we keep building, we can do something special.”
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks have a crowded backcourt but second-year guard Immanuel Quickley remains part of the team’s plans. Coach Tom Thibodeau believes he can play Quickley in a number of different guard combinations, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic. “The great value with (Quickley) is that he plays with Derrick (Rose) and Alec (Burks), and so really the point (guard) is interchangeable with those guys. They move the ball and they make plays for each other real well,” Thibodeau said. “So, oftentimes, Quickley will bring it up. Derrick will bring it up. Alec could bring it up or we’ll get into dribble-handoffs. … We’re gonna fly around.”
- Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens doesn’t miss the daily grind of being the head coach, he told A. Sherrod Blakely of Full Court Press. “I haven’t had to worry about practice plan, game plan, none of that,” said Stevens. “I’ve enjoyed watching Ime (Udoka) put the team together and figure out how he wants to play, who compliments who, and all those things that go into that.”
- Sixers second-year guard Isaiah Joe is angling for playing time and he’s gotten off to a good start in the preseason, Gina Mizell of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. He had 18 points — including four 3-pointers — three rebounds and three steals against the Raptors. “We’ve got to get him on the floor more is what I keep telling our coaches,” coach Doc Rivers said, “because those 10 guys [in the rotation] are playing so much. … I told [Joe], I don’t care what unit you’re on, just keep going back and forth.”
I really like Joe would be nice to see him take the next step and get himself regular minutes.
Kyrie for Ben Simmons
KD would never allow Kyrie to be traded. Kyrie was the only reason KD went to Brooklyn instead of MSG.
Doesn’t sound like it in his quotes
No ones trading tie a player if he can only play in half the games and can’t practice
A Kyrie/Simmons swap would be ideal for both teams. Of course, with Doc coaching a team that good, you’d have to expect they’d be up 3-1 in a playoff series.
We
know
how
that
goes…
Unicorn Porzingis for Ben Simmons link to socraticgadfly.blogspot.com
Joe has an uphill battle even if Simmons leaves depending on the lineups he’s down there…
Maxey – Shake
Curry – Korkmaz – Green – Springer/Joe
Green – Thybulle – Korkmaz
Tobias – Niang – Reed
Jo – Drummond – Niang/Bassey
Dort and picks for Simmons
If those picks ended up being enough to land Dame or Beal as part of a 3 team then sure.
Stfu Doc. You didnt even know who he was last year. If you did, he would have played, especially when Danny Green got hurt, instead of using George Hill and/or Seth Curry without at least 1 of Simmons and Embiid on the floor, which you stupidly did a significant amount. Literally, for this comment alone, he should be fired