If Kyrie Irving opts out this summer as expected, he’ll be one of the top free agents on the market. He’s claimed he plans to re-sign with the Celtics, but an Eastern Conference source told The Post that’s not as ironclad as he made it sound.
Irving’s own words and actions show frustration at times with everything from teammates to coach Brad Stevens’ play calling. And while leaving Boston is no sure thing, if the New Jersey product becomes available this summer, the Nets should move heaven, earth and any player needed to offer him.
The Celtics were tabbed as Eastern Conference favorites before the season, but came into Monday’s game in Brooklyn with Irving sidelined (quad) and sitting just fifth in the standings after a trying week.
First there was Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris getting into a shoving match during Thursday’s loss to Miami. Then came Saturday’s loss to Orlando when Irving got on Gordon Hayward for not running the designed play.
Irving boiled over afterward, saying his inexperienced teammates need to maintain discipline, stay focused and learn to go from hunters to hunted. After cooling off, he said at Monday’s shootaround that it was all just out of passion.
“I watch so much basketball when I leave here. I’m obsessed with it,” said Irving, averaging 22.7 points and 6.4 assists. “I feel like I was chosen to play basketball. When I go home I literally just obsess over basketball. That’s my job … when you win, you want to taste it again, so then I never want to come to a place where I don’t want to sound like I feel like I don’t want to win championships.
“Sometimes I may come off and say things — I’m never to question my teammates in public ever again — but I just want to win so bad. I came from a place where I asked for a trade and I asked to come here. I believe in this organization and I want these guys to be successful. In order to do that, we’ve all got to be on the same page and have that mindset — championship or nothing — and sometimes that can get the best of me.”
The Nets could use not only Irving’s elite ability, but his single-minded obsession. He grew up in West Orange and graduated from St. Patrick’s in Elizabeth, but can a team that’s done this much losing convince Irving — or Kawhi Leonard, or any other max free agent — that it can put a contender around him?
“They’re playing well and in a spot that I know they want to be in, fighting for their eighth, seventh, sixth spot,” Irving said. “Obviously the top five teams are pretty solid in the Eastern Conference. Those guys can sneak right in there.
“They’re a young core figuring it out. So it’s exciting to see what they’ve been able to accomplish this season starting off the way they did and now coming along pretty strong as of late, playing pretty well.”
The idea of the Nets affording two max players is essentially a myth. Once Allen Crabbe opts in, their cap space goes down to $49.9 million. They also have to pay a pair of first-round picks. Oh, and the elephant in the room: D’Angelo Russell.
Russell has averaged 22.6 points and 6.9 assists over his past seven games, essentially identical to Irving’s season stats. He’s 22, still improving and told The Post he wants to be “a Net for life.” But do the Nets want the same?
They didn’t give him an extension before the season, so he’ll hit restricted free agency. With a $21 million cap hold, Spencer Dinwiddie already extended and an established aversion to letting assets walk for nothing, how will the Nets proceed?
Do they dangle Russell at the trade deadline? Move Crabbe before free agency hits? What they do may show what they’re thinking about Irving, or Leonard, or chasing any other star.
