The Brooklyn Nets have had quite the tumultuous 4 years with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant by their side. After not receiving the 4-year contract extension that was worth around $198 million from Sean Marks and the Nets front office, Irving requested a trade ahead of the February 9th trade deadline.
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This came after he said last month that nobody in the Nets locker room was halfway committed to the team and that everybody has the same objective. Fast-forward today and Irving is officially a member of the Dallas Mavericks organization, playing second fiddle to Luka Doncic.
Irving has a long-standing relationship with Nico Harrison from his days at Nike and Jason Kidd reportedly was incredibly excited to try to integrate him into their offense. The Mavs also gave the Nets the best offer that still lets them compete. However, there seems to be another reason for why the Nets chose the Mavs over the Lakers.
The Nets wanted to send Kyrie Irving anywhere but his preferred destination
Kyrie Irving wanted to go to the Los Angeles Lakers to team up with LeBron James once again. He even hinted towards it in a sly way during his postgame presser after their most recent game against the Lakers. The Brooklyn Nets knew Irving preferred to go to the Lakers as well.
It has now been reported that the Brooklyn front office actually feel like they have succeeded in their trade by not sending Irving to his preferred destination. Essentially, after everything that transpired between Kyrie and the Nets organization, they felt as though they didn’t have to ‘do him a solid’ by sending him where he wanted to go.
“The Nets also succeeded, as one source close to the process put it, in meeting one of the presumed objectives held by team owner Joe Tsai by sending Irving somewhere other than the Lakers — his preferred destination.”
(via @TheSteinLine, https://t.co/FAMdxECGNZ) pic.twitter.com/2RJcNgopoM
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) February 6, 2023
Despite this, Irving is said to be ‘ecstatic’ about joining forces with Luka Doncic on the Dallas Mavericks. It’ll give Luka a secondary creator to take the pressure off of him, something he’s missed since Jalen Brunson made his way to the New York Knicks.
The Nets wanted all of the Lakers’ young players
The Los Angeles Lakers initially offered up Russell Westbrook and their two future firsts in exchange for Kyrie Irving. The Nets however, want to compete for a championship with Kevin Durant still on the mend.
So, along with Russ and the two FRPs, they reportedly requested all of the Lakers’ young talent including Max Christie and Austin Reaves while also looking to acquire pick swaps. This led to talks between the two teams going stagnant and eventually, they would end their negotiations.
