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Just one year after signing a new four-year contract extension, Kevin Durant demanded a trade.
The turn of fortunes came after a brutal season that Kyrie Irving refused to take part in and James Harden demanded to be traded out of. Then, the Nets were swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics.
Now, Brooklyn has been scouring the market for destinations to send Durant. The only problem? There is never going to be equal, or even close to equal, value for the All-NBA star.
Now, The Post’s Brian Lewis is reporting that Kyrie Irving wants to be a Net going forward, and that the two sides could come to an agreement.
“With many GMs going on vacation after summer league, if a deal doesn’t get done in the next few days it could drag into training camp,” he wrote. “If that happens, cooler heads prevailing is possible. And maybe even probable. And from the Nets’ point of view, preferable.”
The Nets could choose to run it back with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving Getty Images
Here’s the odds movement that the Nets have seen since this chaos began. The odds you see here are provided by Superbook Sportsbook, by way of Fox Sports.
- Pre-Durant trade demand: Nets +800
- Post-Durant trade demand: Nets +2500
- Highest the odds moved: Nets +5000
- Current odds: +2500
Immediately after Pat McAfee’s July 5 podcast, where Shams Charania expressed that the Nets will not trade anyone unless their price demands are met, the odds shifted from 50:1 to 25:1.
Furthermore, today on ESPN’s “Get Up” Brian Windhorst said, “Boy, is that the vibe that is coming out of Brooklyn right now. They are prepared to do that. It could be a negotiating position or it could be a smart decision.”
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The Nets are actually improving their roster, too. Royce O’Neale was traded from Utah to Brooklyn, and now represents the best perimeter defender on their roster.
Theoretically, Kyrie Irving would have to play in order to earn a max contract next offseason. Anyone attempting to predict Irving’s next moves are foolish to even try. But at +2700 on FanDuel, they have worse odds than the Dallas Mavericks to win it all.
No matter how unlikely it seems right now, the Nets would come into the NBA season with one of the best rosters from top to bottom if Durant and Irving are in the fold.
Hold your nose, drown out the notice, negotiations, and tactics: place your wagers on last year’s favorites. Sometimes value can be ugly and this one is most certainly ugly.
