Kyrie Irving’s trade request throws the Nets into a familiar place: chaos

NEW YORK — Since Kevin Durant rescinded his trade request from the organization in August, many have wondered if he would reboot it should he once again lose faith in the organization.

Instead, Kyrie Irving beat him to it.

On Friday, Irving told the Nets he wants to be moved ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline, sources told The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Irving is making $36.5 million in the final year of his initial four-year contract with the team after opting into his player option last June. That decision came after Irving sought and failed to find a sign-and-trade scenario that would yield him a new long-term deal.

When the Nets refused to offer Irving a max contract then, he only found a lack of interest leaguewide. Will things be any different now?

Irving’s decision is the latest in a long line of headlines he’s made since leaving the Celtics for the Nets in 2019. Irving’s time in Brooklyn has been defined by a lack of availability (he’s played in 143 of the Nets’ 277 regular-season games; for comparison, he played in 127 regular-season games for the Celtics in two seasons) and hypotheticals instead of title banners. He was suspended in November by the Nets for a minimum of five games without pay after he posted a link to a documentary promoting anti-Semitic views on his social media accounts, then repeatedly refused to apologize for doing so. He ended up missing eight games.

That came after a season in which Irving played just 29 games after his refusal to comply with New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate; he was brought back for road games only in January before the city-wide mandate was lifted in March. Irving’s lack of commitment was enough to get James Harden to ask for a trade to Philadelphia in exchange for Ben Simmons. Like Harden, Irving made his request when Durant was hurt.

Kyrie Irving is available for the Nets tomorrow against the Wizards. Both Ben Simmons and TJ Warren are listed as questionable.

— Alex Schiffer (@Alex__Schiffer) February 3, 2023

After Durant went down with a sprained right MCL in early January, Irving was asked why this season’s stretch would go better than the 5-16 one without his running mate last year.

“I’m consistently in the lineup that helps,” Irving said. “We also don’t have halfway-in anyone in the locker room and there’s a primary focus on the big picture here. These are warm-up games the big performances come in late in April. Just have to enjoy it and smile at how you lose and be able to pick yourself back up.”

“I’m doing the best job I can,” he continued. “I wish I could make a few more shots within the minutes and be efficient. I know that will come and I’ll continue to prepare the best way I know how and be a better example for the guys in the locker room.

Irving’s comments only held up for so long. Less than a month after taking a thinly veiled shot at Harden, Irving is following a similar playbook hoping to follow Harden out the door.

Throughout all of this, the Nets have stuck with Irving. Is this the time they part with him for good? Doing so would seem to indicate them pressing the reset button on an era filled with hypothetical greatness.

When Durant reaffirmed his commitment to the organization in August, the talk around Sunset Park was that all the Nets needed was to see their roster on the court together. Their full potential was on display in December, when the team went 12-1 and rose toward the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

Since then? Durant got hurt a little more than a week into the new year with an MCL sprain and is aiming to return in the next two weeks. Simmons is out with knee soreness despite a clean MRI. T.J. Warren, their low-risk, high-reward minimum signing, is out with a shin contusion. Without Durant, the Nets are 4-7.

They have seen Irving get named an All-Star starter alongside Durant for his efforts. He’s played in 40 games, more than he did last season (29) and in his first season (20) as a Net, and is averaging 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game on 48 percent shooting. Irving’s talent is as apparent and omnipresent as the drama.

Reporting on Kyrie Irving’s trade request with the Nets and two of the reasons why: pic.twitter.com/dRZcm03YP2

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 3, 2023

Maybe the bigger question is can the Nets even stick with him at this point? We’ve seen what happens to teams when they know one of their stars has one foot out the door. (It’s not good.) Can the Nets continue to function if they hold onto Irving through Thursday’s deadline? This season, the Nets have dealt with one of Irving’s controversies already, and those on the team for longer have even more experience with Irving firestorms. What’s one more?

Irving’s request comes fresh off a blowout loss to his former team, the Boston Celtics, on Wednesday at TD Garden. During Irving’s time in Boston, he was impatient with his young, but talented teammates in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. He left and they made the Finals without him. Unlike the Nets, the Celtics looked primed to do so for the coming years.

When asked about the Nets’ performance against the Celtics, Irving almost sounded wistful when talking about his former team.

“It’s clear as day that they want to win the championship and they’re not wasting any time in the regular season,” Irving said. “So tonight I just felt like we were just one of those teams in the way, and we just can’t be one of those teams in a way; we’ve got to be one of those teams that stands up to them and at least shows them that we’re gonna be competition for them moving forward, which I believe we are. But tonight we just didn’t show it.”

Granting Irving’s wish is easier said than done. On one hand, as a rental he presents the least amount of risk a team could take on in any kind of deal. But given the year he’s had and his stretch in Brooklyn, would executives rather keep their assets than risk it all for a player as talented as Irving is on the court but as unpredictable off of it?

Finally, are the Nets content letting Irving leave for nothing when their asset cupboard is nearly bare? They can attempt to take a drama-filled team into the playoffs, as they did last year, and see where it goes. Or, they can trade him, which would seem to indicate the beginning of the end of this “greatest” era that wasn’t. The Durant-Irving partnership has yielded just one playoff series win. Are the Nets able to keep the team together to even match that this spring?

Once again, the trade deadline clock is ticking and a Nets star wants out. After a few months in the sun, the organization is again under a cloud of uncertainty.