Kyrie Irving is leaving the Boston Celtics, and that is no longer a question mark these days. The real mystery is - where he is headed to? Reports persist Irving is most likely donning the Brooklyn Nets jersey next but even that scenario is yet to be written in stone.
That's because the Nets acquiring Irving seems heavily reliant on one thing. If the NBA team is able to land Kevin Durant then the plan will push through. Recent events appear to agree with an Irving-Durant tandem actually happening in Brooklyn, and the latest was the series of meetups between the two players, according to Bleacher Report.
KD and Irving got together twice by now, the report insisted, adding that to make the deal even more attractive for Durant, the Nets will be making room for his long-time friend, DeAndre Jordan.
"The Nets are exploring the feasibility of signing Kevin Durant's close friend DeAndre Jordan in free agency ... in hopes that would make the prospect of teaming up in Brooklyn with Kyrie Irving even more enticing to Durant," the report quoted Marc Stein of the New York Times as saying.
In addition, Irving himself is said to be actively courting KD to leave California for next season and make New York as his next home. Will he relent?
Things seem to point to that direction as Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report claimed Durant is putting the blame on the Golden State Warriors for letting him play in the Finals series with the Toronto Raptors. As a result, KD suffered a ruptured Achilles and the injury will keep him from playing in the entire 2019-20 NBA Season.
So Durant is thought to be contemplating on switching teams but that happening is not a hundred percent sure. It's no secret he can change his mind anytime, and more so with the likelihood that the Nets are thinking twice to ink a deal with given he will be sidelined for an extended period.
Should that play out, then even the prospect of having Irving around will not be too tempting for Brooklyn. The vision, after all, is to create the winning KD-Irving tandem so if one element is missing there is no sense to push.
For the Nets, it is wiser to keep the status quo, which is to pass up of on Irving and instead build the team around on D'Angelo Russell, whom analysts described as the better option when it comes to long-term investment.
That's the view offered by Tim Doyle, who imagines the Nets would be better off in the long-run in betting big on the former Los Angeles Lakers star.
"If I had to pay between Kyrie Irving and D'Angelo Russell, in my eyes, it's not even close. I would go out there and pay D'Angelo Russell. I think he's the better long-term investment in a city like New York," Doyle was reported by CBS Sports as saying.
