Potential Options If the Nets Decide to Trade Kyrie Irving

When do the games actually start to matter?

The answer to that question, of course, is Tuesday. That’s when the NBA regular-season mercifully tips, but I ask that up top because all the news emanating out of the Association during training camp and preseason the past few weeks has been Ben Simmons or Kyrie Irving related. And I’ve been exhausted by all of it. Yet only the whimsical Nets guard could knock Simmons-specific news down a peg—or five—after Brooklyn took the bold move Tuesday of telling its superstar to go home until he’s eligible to play home games.

Irving—despite pleading that he’s not an anti-vaxxer and that he’s just standing up for what he believes in and wants to be a voice for the voiceless—sounds like he’s not going to take the vaccine anytime soon after he went on IG Live Wednesday and spewed a whole bunch of nothing. Seriously, listen to what he said and if you can make sense of it you deserve a Pulitzer.

Until he decides to comply with the New York City mandate that he needs to be vaccinated in order to enter Barclays Center—like all his Nets teammates, coaches, and other staff have—he’s not allowed to be around the team, a move that was made by Nets’ general manager Sean Marks and franchise owner Joe Tsai. They should be applauded and praised for telling Irving to get lost until he’s eligible to play because double-standards shouldn’t be tolerated when there’s a pandemic still going on and—on a slightly less serious level—the Nets are trying to win a championship and having a guy only half committed to the cause is a waste of everyone’s time.

It looks like Irving’s standing firm and not budging on his no vaccine stance and that means everyone’s going to speculate that Brooklyn could look to get rid of its problem child. Our pal from The Athletic, Shams Charania, who has been breaking a ton of the Irving news this week, told The Glue Guys podcast:“As far as teams being interested, I mean there’s definitely already teams that would have a level of interest.”

Noted. But let’s also remember that a “level” of interest is different from a “keen” interest. Or “significant” interest. Or “heightened” interest. Or “fevered” interest. Christ, I have a level of interest in what it feels like to stand on top of the world, but I’ve read enough books about Mount Everest to know there’s no fucking way I’m going anywhere near that place.

Nets general manager Sean Marks was asked about the possibility of exploring trades for Irving on Tuesday and offered as much enlightenment as you could reasonably expect into the team’s thinking given the crazy circumstances.

“I don’t know that I want to address the hypotheticals of what may happen in the future here,” Marks said. “I think this is pretty raw, pretty fresh. I think we’ve got to let the dust settle. The hope is that we have Kyrie back. We’ll welcome him back with open arms under a different set of circumstances. So we need to wait and see how that transpires.”

Frankly, I have no idea why teams would give up any serious assets for Irving. We’ll touch on the offensive genius’s contractual situation shortly that factors into trade speculation—as it always does in the NBA. But just based on his erratic behavior in Cleveland, Boston, and now Brooklyn, why would anyone want to take on the headache that is Irving whose commitment to basketball appears suspect at best?

Since you guys can’t get enough wild and unsubstantiated trade speculation content, let’s break down Irving’s value and identify a few spots that—from an extremely elementary perspective and not based on serious leads or intel—could make for a landing spot.

Know that there is no indication right now that the Nets are actively shopping Irving. No legitimate offers, or targets, have been leaked by any of your favorite insiders—in fact, many have clearly stated that trading Irving feels like an impossibility heading into the start of the season. It’s a widely shared opinion of league observers and insiders that there isn’t a market for Irving. So with all that in mind, a la George Costanza, if you wanna get nuts, let’s get nuts.

What Will He Bring Back?

Honestly, it’s hard to envision much right now. As I wrote above, what sane NBA general manager would give up significant assets to acquire the mercurial Irving who is as unpredictable as it gets? There’s always one dumb owner that will insert himself into a situation he doesn’t belong and the NBA features more than a few who have previously hijacked trade negotiations, making nonsensical moves because they could or loved the juice it would bring to their organization. If you know, you know. Especially if you’re a New York basketball fan. But what owner would sign off on an Irving trade right now? Until he gets vaccinated, he’s bad for business and he’s putting others around the organization at risk.

The other aspect of the Irving situation that makes getting true value on his talent practically impossible is what sane general manager would trade for a guy who can be a free agent next summer? Irving carries a $36.5 million player option for the 2022-23 season and is eligible for a maximum salary that would pay him in excess of $40 million, but nothing about him going forward is guaranteed and trading anything of real value for such a wild card flies in the face of prudence and smart business. No GM wants to lose a trade and you could easily lose a trade dealing for Irving given his volatility. And even though he claimed in the IG Live he has no desire to retire, there have been reports that Irving would call it a career if the Nets ever traded him.

Also, who else on the Nets’ roster—I’m talking young talent, not expensive Joe Harris—is attractive enough to request to be packaged with Irving? It’s really slim pickings with Brooklyn. The Nets, reportedly, are no longer looking to offer Irving the massive extension he’s eligible for and you would think that any team seriously interested in acquiring Irving would want more than just a seasonal rental. If, he was in fact, fully committed to playing basketball into his early 30s. So while Irving’s talent is unquestioned, all the other factors swirling around him make him a landmine right now.

Where Could He Land?

It’s incredibly difficult to imagine Irving getting shipped anywhere right now, if we’re being dead serious about this exercise. Of course things can change, sometimes even rapidly in the modern NBA. In theory, every team should be wildly interested and salivating over the idea that an NBA champion, who is a maestro with the basketball, could be available via trade. A seven-time All-Star who has made three All-NBA teams who is only 29, there are a ton of teams that would love to have Irving in the backcourt if he was all in on basketball instead of talking in circles on social media.

Remember that any free agent signed over the summer can’t be dealt until a few months into the season—so that inhibits the trade market. Sure, there are a few squads around the Association that absolutely could use an upgrade at either shooting guard and point guard. And if you use your imagination, there are some interesting landing spots for Irving. But as you’ll also see we can easily poke holes in all of the sexy ones and easily toss out some logical ones. Everything you read below is massively hypothetical, completely speculative, and likely never happens in a million years. But because, sadly, way too many NBA fans love the off-the-court drama more than the games, let’s start by talking about the odorous point guard problem in Philadelphia.

Sixers

On the surface, it’s a classic problem-for-problem swap that has been proposed approximately 1,593,932 times on Twitter, Reddit, and every cable debate show this week. Ben Simmons doesn’t want to stick around Philly and his salary matches up nicely with Irving’s. Simmons arguably would give the Nets an awesome dimension they’ve been missing since he’s a defensive dynamo. But it ain’t happening. Practically every single insider around the league has dismissed a Simmons for Irving swap for a litany of reasons—like why would Philadelphia take on arguably the bigger, more problematic diva? While it makes sense superficially, the deeper you dig the uglier it actually gets. Simmons—like Irving—is not vaccinated. So unless he decides to take the jab, why would Brooklyn deal for a guy who can’t play in home games?

Raptors

There’s a vaccine mandate in Canada so off the bat, this is also a non-starter. But I bring up the Raptors because Pascal Siakam is a name that maybe, possibly could be had for the right package. The Raptors are rebuilding without tearing things completely down. They’re definitely in a transitional period and Siakam’s rehabbing from a shoulder injury. But Siakam has built up a lot of goodwill within the organization and the city since he helped the Raptors win a championship in 2019 and there haven’t been any serious indications Toronto wants to move him. Don’t forget about Goran Dragic, either.

Kings

Do the Kings have a track record of doing dumb shit? Their list of roster related fuck-ups is a mile long. But acquiring Irving at the expense of their young core might be a new level of stupid. That being said, yes, an Irving trade with Sacramento is doable. Swapping Irving for De’Aaron Fox is the obvious starting point. However, throwing cold water on any Kings trade speculation was Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer who wrote this week that the Kings have made Fox and second-year wing Tyrese Haliburton off-limits. Fox, who signed a massive extension last November, can’t be traded until Nov. 24 as stipulated in his contract.

Mavericks

Luka Doncic forever needs a star sidekick and Irving would instantly upgrade the Mavericks backcourt into being the NBA’s most elite—at least offensively speaking. Kristaps Porzingis could be the starting point since he’s the sexiest candidate Dallas has. Or there could be a package built around Tim Hardaway Jr. and some of the Mavericks excellent role players. But Hardaway can’t be traded until Dec. 15 after re-signing with Dallas during the offseason and Mavs owner Mark Cuban recently said on “10 Questions With Kyle Brandt” that he’s requiring his employees to be inoculated unless they have a “doctor’s reason.” We’re still waiting on Irving to give us one legitimate reason why he’s not vaccinated. Next.

Spurs

Brooklyn already has a few former Spurs on the roster. Why not add more? Any hypothetical package would, you’d think, have to start with Dejounte Murray plus some extra pieces. But the chances of Gregg Popovich—who has never been afraid to speak his mind coherently, intelligently, and with reverence—giving up significant pieces of the Spurs young core and/or tolerating the looniness of Irving are slim to none.