Nets To Allow Kyrie Irving To Return As Part-Time Player

6:08 PM: Nets GM Sean Marks has released a statement regarding Irving’s return:

After discussions with our coaches, players and staff, the organization has decided to have Kyrie Irving re-join the team for games and practices in which he is eligible to participate. We arrived at this decision with the full support of our players and after careful consideration of our current circumstances, including players missing games due to injuries and health and safety protocols.

“We believe that the addition of Kyrie will not only make us a better team but allow us to more optimally balance the physical demand on the entire roster. We look forward to Kyrie’s return to the lineup, as well as getting our entire roster back together on the court.”


4:10 PM: The Nets have reconsidered their stance to hold Kyrie Irving out of action indefinitely and have begun the process of reintegrating him as a part-time player, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links).

As Wojnarowski explains, the Nets have been hit hard by injuries and COVID-19 cases and find themselves leaning heavily on their stars, including Kevin Durant, who is averaging 37.0 minutes per game, his highest minutes average in eight seasons. As a result, Brooklyn has decided to allow Irving to play in road games to help ease the burden on the rest of the roster.

The Nets had initially made the decision during the preseason to have Irving remain away from the team, since he was unvaccinated and was ineligible to practice or play games in New York due to the city’s vaccine mandate. Management and ownership deemed it untenable to have Kyrie only active on the road. Two months later, the team is reversing that stance.

Irving is still unvaccinated, so he remains ineligible to play in games in New York, including the Nets’ home games and away games vs. the Knicks. He also won’t be able to travel to Canada to face the Raptors. However, he will be eligible to play in Brooklyn’s other games on the road.

According to Woj (via Twitter), Irving’s return isn’t imminent. He’ll have to pass a series of COVID-19 tests before he’s cleared to return to team workouts, then he may require a little time to get back into game shape.

Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links) first reported that Irving is beginning the ramp-up process toward making his season debut, adding that he’s expected to practice with the Nets in the coming days. Nets owner Joe Tsai, GM Sean Marks, head coach Steve Nash, and key players on the team all support the decision, tweets Wojnarowski.

It remains to be seen what the long-term plan for Irving is. While having him available for about half the Nets’ games should help provide a boost in the short term, it’s hard to imagine the team will be happy only having him available on the road once the playoffs arrive. That’s still a few months away though, so the two sides have some time to figure things out.

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