Kyrie Irving ‘Has Every Intention’ of Playing for Nets: Truth or Leverage Play?

Although Kevin Durant approached the Brooklyn Nets front office about wanting to be traded, Kyrie Irving is reportedly content with playing out the last year of his contract.

The NBA world was shook when Kevin Durant made his trade request to the Brooklyn Nets. That happened after Kyrie Irving opted into the final year of his contract, and it fueled speculation that Irving actually wanted to end up with the Los Angeles Lakers, but didn’t want to do so at the expense of about $30 million.

Now, according to a report from the New York Post, Irving “has had every intention of playing for the Nets — with or without Durant.”

Whether that’s the whole truth or not remains to be seen, but it feels much more likely that this is merely a leverage play on Brooklyn’s end. Before Irving opted in, a handful of teams were reportedly interested in doing a sign-and-trade with Brooklyn for him, but nothing ever materialized.

After Irving’s opt in, three teams — the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers — were reported as having interest in a trade for Irving on an expiring contract. The Mavs and Sixers were quick to push back on those reports, though, which leads us to believe this is just about Brooklyn seeing how much it can squeeze out of a borderline desperate Lakers team.

The Nets would probably love to trade Irving to the Lakers in exchange for Russell Westbrook — who is also on an expiring deal — and a couple of future first-round draft picks, but L.A. can’t afford to sell off the rest of their future for a risky player who could walk for nothing next summer. Given that LeBron James is 37 years old, he could probably care less about those future picks, but the Lakers have to start thinking about life after the LeBron era at some point.

Given that the Mavs lost their second-best player in Jalen Brunson to the New York Knicks in free agency, one would naturally think they’d have some interest in taking a chance on Irving if the price low enough … but giving up future draft capital is something Dallas definitely won’t do when it comes to any potential Irving deals.

How cheap are we talking? Probably ‘Tim Hardaway Jr. and Davis Bertans straight up for Irving’ kind of cheap. And at that point, it might make more sense for the Nets to just let things play out next season and hope for the best.

So does Kyrie really intend to play out this upcoming season in Brooklyn? Leverage play or not, he might not have any other choice.