Via Shams Charania of the Athletic:

The Nets’ negotiations with Kyrie Irving were always going to be challenging, and now they’ve reportedly reached an impasse.

Irving can opt out of his contract and become a free agent at the end of this month, and conversations with Brooklyn over an extension have gone stagnant. It could lead the All-Star point guard to consider other teams, according to The Athletic.

“It has always been about being comfortable loving where I’m at, and I love it here,” Irving said after the Nets got swept by Boston, adding, “there’s no way I can leave my man 7 anywhere.”

At this point, he’s either changed his mind or is trying to bluff Nets general manager Sean Marks into believing he might.

Neither Marks nor Irving’s agent Shetellia Riley Irving had any comment.

…

The Nets’ negotiations with Kyrie Irving were always going to be challenging, and now they’ve reportedly reached an impasse.

Irving can opt out of his contract and become a free agent at the end of this month, and conversations with Brooklyn over an extension have gone stagnant. It could lead the All-Star point guard to consider other teams, according to The Athletic.

“It has always been about being comfortable loving where I’m at, and I love it here,” Irving said after the Nets got swept by Boston, adding, “there’s no way I can leave my man 7 anywhere.”

At this point, he’s either changed his mind or is trying to bluff Nets general manager Sean Marks into believing he might.

Neither Marks nor Irving’s agent Shetellia Riley Irving had any comment.

…

Irving and the Nets have “serious work to do” to be able to hammer out an agreement, and if they don’t, The Athletic posits that the Knicks, Lakers and Clippers could be suitors.

Irving has until June 29 to pick up or decline his $36.9 million player option for next season. Watching him leave as a free agent would be the nuclear option and catastrophic for the Nets, who are over the cap and would have no way of replacing him.

My first thought on hearing this news this morning was that this is largely bluster, a negotiating tactic. It’s the Nets playing hardball with Kyrie, and Kyrie playing hardball with them. I still think it’s overwhelmingly likely that Kyrie ends up with the Nets on a long term extension because he and KD are best buddies and the Nets are, at the end of the day, historically a poverty franchise that doesn’t have the luxury of telling All Star-level players to go pound sand.

This is the NBA; it’s a player-driven league, and usually the players end up getting what they want, and the teams have to suck it up. The players call the shots in the NBA.

But then again, this is clear evidence that the relationship between Kyrie and the Nets is strained and possibly beyond repair. Think about it: with a player of Kyrie’s caliber, you don’t even negotiate. You offer him the longest, most expensive contract you possibly can and pray he signs it. That’s how it goes.

Usually.

But that’s not what’s happening here. The Nets are not just giving Kyrie whatever he wants. They are not begging him to sign an extension. They are not bending over backwards for him. They are not doing everything they can to please their star player.

If the Nets were truly enamored with Kyrie, they would overlook all of his off-court drama and vaccine issues and all that stuff. They wouldn’t care how much trouble he causes for them.

But they do care about that stuff, apparently.

Look, this could all be a negotiating tactic from one or both sides, but even if it is, that’s unusual for a situation like this. Normally, there is no “negotiation” when it comes to star players–they get whatever they want, and that’s that.

The very fact that there even is this sort of “negotiation” and gamesmanship and leaking going on is proof that the Nets have some real reservations about Kyrie Irving. If I had to bet, I’d bet that the Nets are insisting on a shorter deal, while Kyrie wants the security of a long-term supermax deal. But the Nets won’t give it to him because they don’t want to be tied to him for 4 additional years. They want to be able to cut bait with him if he really goes off the rails. I don’t think the Nets are comfortable making a long-term investment in Kyrie Irving, because if they were, then this deal would be done already.

So you can’t just dismiss this news as a strategic leak, or a negotiation ploy. I think Kyrie’s comments over the offseason that seemed to suggest he was ready to consider a reunion with LeBron were part of his efforts to scare the Nets, but I think there is genuinely a rift between Kyrie and the Nets. I think he’s legitimately entertaining the idea of playing elsewhere, and naturally, the Lakers are close to the top of the list for him because, A. it’s LA, and B., it’s LeBron.

So could the Lakers even get Kyrie? I really don’t even want to get into this discussion because I think it’s such a ridiculous pipe dream. I would be utterly stunned if the Nets trade Kyrie and Patty Mills (because that’s what it would take for the salaries to offset) for Russell Westbrook. The Nets would be essentially bailing the Lakers out, making them the prohibitive Championship favorites, and then punting on the 2023 season in which Kevin Durant will be 34 years old.

The Nets are not wasting Kevin Durant’s age 34 season. There is no way they think Westbrook will be an upgrade over Kyrie. I know there are people out there who think it could work with those two in Brooklyn, but come on. Let’s get real here. KD left Westbrook. I can’t imagine KD wants to swap out Kyrie for Russell Westbrook, especially after how poorly Russ played last season.

To me, this idea of a Lakers-Nets 1:1 swap of Kyrie and Westbrook is a pipe dream for Laker fans. I think it’s extremely unlikely to the point where I would dismiss the possibility entirely. The Nets are in win now mode, and trading Kyrie for Westbrook is not a win now move. It’s essentially giving up on next season and hoping to clear up cap space for the summer of 2023, when KD will be 35. But they would be stupid to punt on his age 34 season.

Honestly, I think the Nets are way more likely to trade Kyrie to the Clippers if anything. Trading with the Clippers would allow the Nets to turn Kyrie into several valuable role players, like some combination of Reggie Jackson, Norman Powell, Robert Covington, Marcus Morris Terrence Mann, etc. But even that would not make the Nets better than they are now. They would still just be KD, Ben Simmons (a huge question mark) and a bunch of veteran role players–high quality veteran role players, to be sure, but probably not enough to equal a championship roster.

As for the Knicks, I don’t really think the Nets would want to trade with them, just because of the New York rivalry thing. But beyond that, I just don’t think the Knicks could make an enticing offer. I don’t see Kyrie ending up with the Knicks, although you never know.

Now, there are some people saying the Lakers should trade AD for Kyrie. But that’s a scenario where the Lakers, not the Nets, would probably decline. For one, while AD is unreliable, he’s unreliable due to being injury prone. Kyrie is both injury prone and comes with a bunch of off-court baggage. AD doesn’t have any of that baggage. So I’d say AD is actually probably more reliable than Kyrie. The only reason the Lakers would trade AD is if they could get a player who is more reliable than he is and of equal or at least close skill level. Kyrie is at least close to AD in terms of skill level (probably a bit below, although they’re hard to compare). But he’s not more reliable than AD–he’s probably less reliable.

So I don’t see how the Lakers would trade AD for Kyrie. People will say, “But LeBron and Kyrie fit together so perfectly!” Yeah, but so do AD and LeBron. And the Lakers would have practically no size on their roster if they got rid of AD. They’d be looking at a situation where a 38-year-old LeBron would be logging minutes at center while also being the primary distributor. LeBron can do it, but do the Lakers want to put that much on him? And is that sustainable?

Obviously the ideal situation is the Lakers keep AD and replace Westbrook with Kyrie, but I don’t see that happening. I really think the best trade partner for the Nets is the Clippers, although by no means would that be a trade that makes the Nets better–it would certainly make the Clippers better, because they have incredible depth, but the only thing it would accomplish for the Nets is getting rid of Kyrie.

I’m sure the Nets would like to keep Kyrie, but on their terms. They don’t want him to have power over them. They fear that with the security of a long-term, max deal, Kyrie might become even more flippant towards the game of basketball–coming and going as he pleases, undermining the coach and front office openly, missing games, etc.

I do think Kyrie wants to stay in Brooklyn, but I don’t think he’s willing to withstand the humiliation of a “team-friendly contract.” He knows he’s a max-level basketball player, and he wants to be treated as such. He doesn’t want to be on a contract that gives the Nets all the power and leverage over him.

Perhaps Kyrie will not accept it at all, and his time in Brooklyn is up, or perhaps the Nets will bend here and give Kyrie what he wants.

I would say the most likely scenario is that Kyrie and the Nets work something out. But if he gets traded, I really think the Clippers are the best option for him.

As for LeBron and the Lakers, you know my thoughts on that: LeBron should get his ass out of there as soon as humanly possible. That’s a trainwreck of a front office.

LeBron should go to either Miami or Golden State–yes, Golden State.

If the Warriors can clear out the cap space for LeBron, they should absolutely make that happen. LeBron and Steph would be unbelievable. They’d win multiple rings. LeBron deserves to play for the best-run team, and the best coach, in the NBA as he heads into the final stages of his career. At long last, after nearly 20 years in the NBA, LeBron could be in a situation where he can just play basketball. He wouldn’t have to worry about being the GM, or being the coach, or dealing with incompetent front offices–he would just get to play ball in Golden State. The closest he’s ever been to a situation like this was in Miami, but he also had to deal with a ton of media scrutiny in Miami because of the controversy generated by his Decision. So while he had a great coach, a great front office, and a great team culture in Miami, there was a lot of off-court baggage to deal with down there.

In Golden State, he would have as close to a carefree lifestyle as an NBA superstar can possibly have.

If I were LeBron, I’d be trying to get to either Miami or Golden State, not trying to convince the Lakers front office to trade for Kyrie. Kyrie would be better than Westbrook, but he’d bring a whole host of headaches himself.

On the Warriors, he’d have essentially no headaches at all.

I don’t think we’ll see LeBron in Golden State for this upcoming season, or even the 2024 season, but beyond that, when Bronny is eligible for the NBA? I think we could see it. Assuming Bronny isn’t a lottery pick, the Warriors wouldn’t have too much trouble acquiring him, and then boom, LeBron has already said it: wherever Bronny goes, that’s where he’s going. Certainly people would rip him for forming a super team, but he’s been saying for years he is determined to play for whatever team Bronny is on. So he’s got the built-in excuse right there.

Plus, we know the Warriors develop talent better than just about anybody else. If you’re LeBron, you want your son to play in that system, that culture, that organization. It would give Bronny the best possible chance of success.