Brooklyn Nets: Problematic pairing of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving
By Evan Decruz
Conclusion
Kyrie Irving only averages 63.5 games played per year for his career. Not only is he injury-prone, he also has a reputation as a culture-killer based on his antics in Boston last season.
By the time Kevin Durant returns he will be entering the latter stages of his career coming off an Achilles’ injury. His decline is inevitable. It’s just a matter of how fast it will occur and how pronounced it is.
Irving’s inability to lead will likely doom the Brooklyn Nets next season if he and Durant are paired together now. By the time Durant returns, the Brooklyn culture could already be in crisis mode. Durant will most likely be unable to save Brooklyn at that point.
He and Irving will likely have chemistry issues too as it will take time for them to adjust to each other.
To further complicate matters is the combined salary of the two. The salary cap hit for Brooklyn would be $70.85 million just for next year, in which Durant probably won’t even play.
This pairing would not open a title window for next season. The argument could be made that whatever window this pairing might eventually bring wouldn’t be open wide and not for long as Durant declines and Irving adds more tread on his tires.
When you add in the rest of the Nets prospective team payrolls for 2019-20 and beyond, it may be difficult to surround Irving and Durant with the players needed to vie for a title.
Not many players in the NBA have been vocal about wanting to play with Irving. One has to wonder, how many players will want to gravitate to a team led by Irving and a declining Durant?
Furthermore, if next season is wide open for a team to make a title run, what sense does it make to pair Irving and Durant when they are unlikely to play together much next season, if at all?
This pairing would force a rising All-Star like D’Angelo Russell out of Brooklyn and turn him into a proverbial sacrificial lamb, which won’t sit well with Nets fans if Irving underwhelms (or gets hurt), and Durant returns as a shadow of his former self (or gets hurt).
That scenario would set Brooklyn back as a franchise for a long time. It might even cost Sean Marks his job as general manager of the Nets.
Once the commitment to this pairing is made there is no turning back. Marks will likely have to empty the bank to add players to lend a lot of support to this tandem.
Losing D-Lo and adding Kyrie won’t make the Nets much better than they were last season when they finished 42-40. Brooklyn’s success beyond next season will all hinge on the Achilles’ of Durant.
It doesn’t appear to be a wise gamble to win a championship now or in the next four years.
However, if Brooklyn is looking for the short-term profit by adding this high-profile tandem, it would make sense from a business standpoint.
Marks doesn’t have to pair Irving and Durant to build a contender though. Brooklyn is now a top free-agent destination and they are in a great market.
The free agency crop is extremely deep as well. Marks can avoid this pairing and build a more stable contender long-term without sacrificing the future.
The current Nets team is on the upswing and it can continue in that direction until it coalesces into a title contender. Nets fans would have to be patient but they would have to be patient with a Durant and Irving duo anyway.
Pairing Durant and Irving looks like a desperate move considering Irving’s baggage, Durant’s mileage and both players’ high injury risk.
NBA teams need stars to win but that doesn’t mean they need Irving and Durant right now. Each season, new stars are born and Marks should play the long game with this in mind.
Irving and Durant sounds great on paper, but fans need to realize games are won on the court and not on paper. This is also not the same Durant Marks had in mind when he started making moves to clear cap space to pursue him in free agency. Durant’s career is in jeopardy.
Irving is also not the same player he was when he was LeBron’s sidekick in those memorable Finals moments three years ago. He’s a few years older looking to join his third NBA team after being deemed toxic to Boston’s culture by their fan base.
The Nets shouldn’t risk bringing in a potentially toxic player in Irving and damaged goods in Durant. Not at the cost of their culture and certainly not at the price tags this tandem would bring.