Brooklyn Nets rumors: D’Angelo Russell likely gone if Nets add Kyrie Irving

While there had been some discussion about pairing D’Angelo Russell and Kyrie Irving, new Brooklyn Nets rumors indicate Russell will be gone if Irving signs.

The latest Brooklyn Nets rumors indicate the franchise will be hitting a crossroads at the point free agency begins the evening of June 30. That intersection will be the Nets choosing whether to move forward with D’Angelo Russell or change directions with Kyrie Irving.

According to a report Friday evening from Ian Begley of SportsNet New York, it does not appear keeping Russell while also adding Irving is an option the club wants to entertain.

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Begley, citing “sources familiar with the matter,” reported that the Nets are “highly unlikely” to re-sign Russell, a restricted free agent, if they are able to land Irving, who will become an unrestricted free agent when he officially declines of his $21 million option for next season.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported earlier this week Irving will, in fact, opt out of his final year with the Boston Celtics.

Russell, at 23 and with four years in the NBA, would be a slightly less expensive addition in terms of annual salary than would Irving, who is 27 and an eight-year veteran.

Should Brooklyn retain Russell on a max deal, he would receive five years and $158.05 million, starting at $27.25 million next season and increasing by 8 percent each of the subsequent four years.

A max for Irving would be four years at $140.61 million, with a 2019-20 salary of $32.7 million followed by 5 percent annual raises.

The average annual salary for DLo in that scenario is $31.61 million. Irving’s annual average salary on a max deal is roughly $35.15 million.

On the surface, a switch from Russell to Irving would appear to be an upgrade for Brooklyn. Russell made his first All-Star appearance in 2018-19; Irving earned his second All-NBA selection last season, is a former Rookie of the Year and helped the Cleveland Cavaliers win an NBA title in 2016.

But Russell joined an elite group of players last season, becoming the eighth guard in the last 10 years to average at least 24 points, four rebounds and eight assists per 75 possessions (a list that also includes Irving, for the record).

Last season, Russell was the fourth point guard 23 years old or younger in the last 15 years to put up 20 points and seven assists per game, joining Chris Paul, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook.

Irving averaged 6.9 assists per game for the Celtics last season, which was a career-high.

There are still reports that the Nets are interested in pairing Irving with Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant, even with Durant’s Achilles’ injury sustained in Game 5 of the NBA Finals that will likely sideline him for all of next season.

The combined cap hit for both players would be $70.85 million, which is more than the maximum of $67.59 million Brooklyn can create by rescinding all of its free-agent exception rights — including those to Russell — and waiving the non-guaranteed contracts of Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham.

The needed $3.26 million to get both players would be covered by trading the salary of any one of three players currently on guaranteed deals for next season — Spencer Dinwiddie ($10.61 million), Joe Harris ($7.67 million) or Taurean Waller-Prince ($3.48 million).

Prince was acquired — or rather will be acquired on July 6 — from the Atlanta Hawks as part of the deal that will get Allen Crabbe‘s remaining $18.5 million off Brooklyn’s cap sheet.

Rescinding Russell’s rights would be a boon for any of the teams interested in adding the young guard, including the Indiana Pacers, a team Begley reported is very high on DLo.

Were the Nets to rescind Russell’s rights, which would make him an unrestricted free agent, the Pacers (or any other team) would not have to tie up cap space signing Russell to an offer sheet and waiting for Brooklyn to decide whether to match.

That could affect Indiana (or another team) from getting other deals done while the Nets could take up to 48 hours after the offer sheet is signed to deliberate whether or not to match it.

One of the biggest questions — and one that hasn’t been entertained much in the mainstream media — is what effect this switch could have on the vaunted “culture” that general manager Sean Marks has been selling and promoting over the last three years.

Russell, acquired in a trade that sent the Nets’ all-time leading scorer, Brook Lopez, to the Los Angeles Lakers in June 2017, has been a big part of building that culture.

Russell came to Brooklyn with a bad reputation as a poor teammate, but during his two seasons with the Nets did whatever he was asked to do without complaint. When he was benched late in games in favor of Spencer Dinwiddie, he was helping to lead the dance party to celebrate big plays.

When asked about those benchings, Russell didn’t complain and continued to work to earn the trust of coach Kenny Atkinson.

Irving is a terrific player in his own right, but there were enough red flags to stop a NASCAR race during his final season with the Celtics. Irving told the Boston crowd before a preseason game last fall that he wanted to remain a Celtic.

Then he backed away from that statement, while problems with his relationships with younger teammates became public. Irving’s season ended with an awful performance over the final four games of Boston’s five-game loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The path to an NBA title has almost exclusively been lined with superstar talent, particularly since the turn of the century. The 2003-04 Detroit Pistons stick out as the lone outlier in that group, a team that had several very good players, but no megastars on the roster.

Another elephant in the room is Atkinson’s inexperience coaching superstar players.

He was an assistant with the New York Knicks when they had Carmelo Anthony, but the Atlanta Hawks were a notably superstar-free club during Atkinson’s tenure as an assistant there before taking the top job in Brooklyn in 2016.

Irving has never had any public feuds with his previous coaches, but since coming into the league he’s played under Byron Scott, Mike Brown, David Blatt, Tyronn Lue and Brad Stevens — five coaches in just eight seasons.

In the end, questions of culture and coaching aside, it will come down to whether the Nets believe Russell can become the superstar that Irving has already established himself to be.

But it doesn’t appear the organization is entertaining the concept of combining the pair.