There will likely be an “extremely limited” market for Kyrie Irving outside of Dallas, Adrian Wojnarowski said during an appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter on Tuesday (YouTube link). According to Wojnarowski, that’s why the “full expectation” is that Irving will re-sign with the Mavericks.
“The question will be what kind of a deal does he goes back on,” Wojnarowski said. “How many years on a contract? I don’t think the money will be as much of an issue as how many fully guaranteed years are there for Kyrie Irving. I think that’s where the negotiation is going to be between he and the Mavericks.”
While there are no obvious non-Mavericks suitors for Irving at this point, it sounds like Kyrie intends to explore all his options. Appearing on NBA Today on Wednesday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne said Irving plans to take meetings when free agency opens on Friday. According to Shelburne, the mercurial guard hopes to end up somewhere that “feels like home” and where he can spend the rest of his playing career.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama won’t take part in the California Classic Summer League in early July, but will be joining the Spurs when they travel to the Las Vegas Summer League, the team announced today. Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee has the story.
- Under new Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, players will have to earn their minutes, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, who writes that winning will be prioritized over player development in “phase two” of the team’s rebuild. “A lot of the (playing) time and positions, those things have been given, so to speak, with the young guys,” Udoka said on Monday. “There’ll be changes now in phase two. We are adding some more young pieces but also adding some veterans. So I think this will kind of raise the level of competition. Nothing is handed out anymore.”
- Lucas Finton of The Memphis Commercial Appeal has the details on Ja Morant‘s latest dealings with the legal system. According to Finton, the Grizzlies guard has filed a motion to dismiss an ongoing civil suit related to the punch Morant threw at a then-17-year-old during a pickup basketball game last summer.
- The Pelicans believe they got the “best shooter in the draft” when they used the No. 14 overall pick on Jordan Hawkins, general manager Trajan Langdon told reporters, including Christian Clark of NOLA.com, on Tuesday.
Irving will feel right at home with WHOMEVER guarantees him the most cash over the most time…and even then, he’ll still be unhappy after a season or two.
Lets really get into Kyrie:
He leaves Cleveland because he didn’t want to be second fiddle to the returning King. He wanted to lead. So he goes to Boston. Everything is great in Boston until the fans and the media question Kyrie’s need to even be there after their run in 2018. So he says he wants to play with his friend, who is a top 15 guy, free agent, and also looking to lead a team without “asterisks”. So he decides to team up with KD.
He then goes and plays for the Nets while KD is hurt their first year. Not a peep from him about being unhappy. Then boom Covid hits. He as an American citizen decides what is best for his health (whether you agree or not doesn’t really matter because its HIS health). Because of that choice, he had to miss quite a lot of games. His position on his health then gets picked up by media on one side promoting him as evil and a demon to society, the other side falsely aligning his beliefs with theirs about Covid because he is a prominent figure. To many’s displeasure, he weathered that storm and came back ready to play. Well in that time both Harden and KD didn’t really like the direction of the team. Harden gets traded for Ben Simmons. KD realizes Ben Simmons is barley a rotation guy, losing value daily, making 30+ million a year. Long story short, the Nets project was coming to an end.
Then, Kyrie posts an Amazon link to (imo a pretty unsavory documentary). Didn’t say “Everyone needs to see this now”. Didn’t say “These people are ruining America”. Just posted a link. He was then publicly lambasted for a year about not only what his opinions are, but how dangerous his opinions are. The media killed him day in and day out hoping he’d be quite, and it worked. He did his apologies, and his training and then showed up to work. The Nets proceeded to fall apart and they shipped him to Dallas.
Dallas then tanks (yes they did) and he has not said one word about being unhappy.
Kyrie might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he’s not a demon out to kill a franchise. He’s been molded into this destructive figure by the media and people like you fall for it hook line and sinker. Why? Because you really don’t care. Basketball is a fun past time for you. You think about it when it’s on. Then the TNT guys come on and it’s time to hit the hay. I don’t blame you. The majority of the NBAs fanbase is identical. But the other 20% are forming their own opinions based on the information that comes out. And not just the information pumped to you on Sportscenter.
So if we’d like to talk about someone being unhappy, regardless of outcome or impact, I’d ponder your own way of thinking about the game. Just my 2 cents.
The thing with Kyrie is that he constantly makes you question his honesty. I’m not going to say he’s evil or stupid or whatever, but the bigger problem is that you genuinely cannot tell whether he’s putting on a front or not.
He says he wants to stay in Cleveland, wins a championship, then changes his mind and gets a trade.
He says he wants to stay in Boston, goes out and signs with Brooklyn immediately afterwards.
The first year is totally uneventful because he’s the lone star on a young team. He’s just waiting for KD.
The next season, talks about winning with Brooklyn, lobbies for a Harden trade that really strangles Brooklyn’s depth (though it really raises their ceiling), and plays well despite taking a bunch of time off (I don’t see it as an issue by itself, but viewed next to the totality of his actions…). Brooklyn loses, but that’s not on Kyrie. He was injured.
The next season, he alienates Harden with his strange decisions and refusal to get vaccinated, and the whole situation gets magnified by the media which… duh, they’re a New York sports team. Harden demands a trade because he doesn’t want to play for a circus, and Brooklyn management botched the trade (not directly Kyrie’s fault, but he’s not blameless either). The Nets never have any chemistry because he sat out for over half the year, which of course leads to them getting stomped embarrassingly by Boston.
The next year, he opts in before the whole antisemetic film fiasco, refuses to apologize for spreading that crap, gets (correctly) lambasted for refusing to apologize, then finally does apologize and move forward. The season turns around shortly afterwards, Kyrie finally looks like he’s taking accountability for his decision making, and he and Durant mesh with the rest of the roster quite well.
Then Durant gets injured, and he *immediately* demands a trade, which causes Durant to demand a trade, and gets flipped to Dallas. He says all the right things again, how he wants to stay, how he wants to play with Luka, and reaffirms that after the season ends. And now he’s saying something different again.
He has no consistency on a personal level even if he’s consistently good on the court. He’s not some terrible person, but he isn’t trustworthy. Forget loyalty to a fan base or organization, he doesn’t even seem to hold loyalty to his own teammates. And that’s not media bias, his own actions illustrate that clearly. Maybe players like him as a person, but it doesn’t seem like they like him in the locker room. No surprise fans don’t like that.
What I’m trying to get across is that Kyrie doesn’t just decide to be unhappy and then dominos fall. There are plenty of things that impact him and his views that he can’t control. The media elevates those problems by pointing at the things he can control. This leads to generic NBA fans hating on him any opportunity they get for anything he does. It’s fine to not like Kyrie. There are plenty of players I can’t stand (KAT, Jokic, Draymond) but that doesn’t make me value you them less or go an message boards exclaiming that they’re terrible to have on your basketball team. And while you may be smart enough to separate his on court ability from his off court opinions, you are outnumbered 10 to 1 by goobers wanting to hate basketball.
And for what it’s worth James Harden doesn’t seem to have this tag of not being loyal to his teammates even after not showing up in Houston, then showing up bloated, then being the last in and first out of Brooklyn
I agree to a point, the sensationalism has gotten intense. But Kyrie’s reputation as two-faced and money hungry was created by his actions and inactions, and reinforced by continued actions and inactions along the same lines. It’s kind of like Chris Paul’s reputation as a playoff choker. Is everything 100% his fault? No way. Is there plenty of stuff that *is* his fault? Absolutely. That perception has been heightened into dogma by the NBA discourse machine, but it’s grounded in plenty of truth. The extremes may be too far. But the foundation supporting them exists for good reason.
In regards to Harden, he came back with an unhealed injury in the playoffs against the Bucks in 2021 because he wanted so badly to be there when his team needed him. Kind of hard to hate the man for Brooklyn fans, even though it didn’t work out. And plenty of Houston fans still give him flak for being out of shape and getting traded. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone give him a pass on that.
Not sure how possible it is but I’d love to see Kyrie on the lakers.
Kyrie Bron and AD
I’m not even a lakers fan but just for basketball it would be great to see again. Lakers playing well, Kyrie playing well, LeBron with another chance for a title run. It would be good for basketball with all this European dominance, LeBrons about to retire shortly instead of constant criticism it would be good for one of the all time greats to go out on a high
Forget Dallas, they purposely lost games to fall out of the playoffs. Kyrie and Luka as a duo went something like 11-28. And what do they get to show for it Derek Lively…. As if he’s going to be enough to drive them deeper into the playoffs.
If Dallas would have pushed to make the playoffs they would have almost certainly lost in the first round to the likes of Denver or Memphis and had no draft pick or cap space. By just missing out on the play-in, they were able to add Richaun Holmes, Dereck Lively, Olivier-Maxence Prosper, around $5M left on a TPE and the full MLE worth $12M. That is a huge swing in the right direction for a team that was weak defensively and needs all the help they can get to build a cohesive roster around LD77 and KAI.
But as a player, especially a star player if your set up to fail and miss the playoffs you’d want to leave.
No one plays to lose, obviously your views as a player don’t align with the front office I’d be gone
$30m 2 yr contract with opt out. And this is very generous for the #1 drama queen troublemaker. He will have another yr to prove himself.
$30M would be a steal for Dallas. It will end up being over $40M im afraid. Probably 4 years just as a way to outbid any other team. Give him a PO for yr 3 and a TO for yr 4, incase a divorce is needed at that point. I wish we had never made the trade for him, but here we are. We have to ride it out now
Dallas has the leverage. Besides, the more Dallas guarantees, the worse he will play because he wont have any incentive. Then, he will demand a trade.