Brooklyn Nets: Evaluating options for pivotal offseason

Option A: Adding a superstar

As coach Kenny Atkinson made pretty clear, the Brooklyn Nets are chasing big fish this offseason.

With Kevin Durant set to be a free agent and Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving expected to decline player options and join Durant on the open market, the Nets have a chance to add a top-10 level talent to their roster.

Of the three, it’s hardest to see Kawhi coming to the borough. After his otherworldly postseason, in which he has found himself right back in the ‘best player in the world’ conversation, it’s tough to envision Leonard leaving Toronto for anywhere other than his hometown Clippers.

By reaching the Finals, the Raptors have proved to Leonard, and probably to the rest of the team, that they may very well be his best chance of winning another title.

Of course, all of that may be irrelevant if he has his mind set on going home, but from a basketball perspective the Raptors have given Leonard everything he could have asked for coming into the year.

Things might be a little different for Kyrie, though.

As reported by SNY’s Anthony Puccio, there is “mutual interest” between the former Cleveland guard and the Nets organization, with Puccio even saying that Nets sources believe Irving and D’Angelo Russell could work well together in a backcourt.

To add to that, former Cavs general manager David Griffin said in February on NBA TV that Irving “likes what [the Nets] have done there, culturally.”

While the fit of an Irving-Russell backcourt can be debated, as Puccio notes, Brooklyn even being in the discussion for these blue-chip free agents is a welcome change for the franchise.

While the Nets are betting favorites for Irving, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reported earlier that Irving and Kevin Durant to the New York Knicks was 95 percent done. And while the two may team up at the Garden, Brooklyn is also another possibility for the two superstars.

Adding Irving and Durant to the young core of Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen would turn the Nets into contenders overnight.

The only way the Nets could pair Durant and Irving outright would be if they traded Allen Crabbe’s $18.5 million deal, which I talked about earlier here, and then renounced all of their free agents (including Russell).