Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai expressed his support Monday night for the front office and coaching staff afterwards Kevin Durant Tsai was asked to choose between him, the general manager and the team coach.
ESPN sources confirmed that Tsai and Durant recently met in London, where Durant reiterated his desire to trade and suggested the franchise needed to choose between him and coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks.
Durant initially requested a deal on June 30 and did not back down from that request. At 33, Durant has four years and $198 million left on his contract, which means Brooklyn can be patient waiting for teams to see the kind of payoff he thinks will eventually turn up for a star player who hits the market.Change at his best.
The meeting between Durant and Tsai was first reported by The Athletic, who also noted that it happened on the one-year anniversary of Durant signing his extension.
Durant, along with Keri Irving s Deandre Jordanjoined the Nets in the summer of 2019 after helping Marks and then-coach Kenny Atkinson lift the franchise from slump to a surprising post-season berth.
Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interests of the Brooklyn Nets.
– Joe Tsai (@joetsai1999) August 8, 2022
Since then, nothing has gone the way the Nets had planned.
Durant sat out the 2019 season while recovering from an Achilles tendon rupture, Jordan was traded, Nash was hired to replace Atkinson, James hardened came and went and Ben Simmons He has yet to make his debut with the Nets. Irving opted to withdraw from the final year of his off-season contract with the team, but he did not receive an extension. He played in 29 games last season after choosing not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Irving had created a list of teams he’d like the Nets to consider working on a signing and trading deal if they couldn’t agree terms for him to stay in Brooklyn, but the Los Angeles Lakers were the only team that ESPN sources told ESPN Adrian Wojnarowski it became known that interested.
Irving is now no longer eligible to enter into a trade. The Nets can still trade it as an expiring contract, but Irving won’t have an official say in a potential landing site.
He has until June 30 next year to negotiate an extension with the Nets before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
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