Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai expressed his support Monday night for the front office and coaching staff after Kevin Durant he told Tsai to choose between him, the general manager and the team’s coach.
Tsai and Durant recently met in London, ESPN sources confirmed, in which Durant reiterated his desire to be traded and suggested the franchise needed to choose between him, coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks.
Durant initially requested a trade on June 30 and has not retracted that request. At 33, Durant has four years and $198 million left on his contract, which means Brooklyn can be patient waiting on teams for the kind of return he thinks will eventually emerge for a star player who hits the market. change at its best.
The meeting between Durant and Tsai was first reported by The Athletic, which also noted that it occurred on the one-year anniversary of Durant signing his extension.
Durant, along with Kyrie Irving Y DeAndre Jordanjoined the Nets in the summer of 2019 after Marks and then-coach Kenny Atkinson helped lift the franchise out of stagnation and into a surprising postseason berth.
Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.
— Joe Tsai (@joetsai1999) August 8, 2022
Since then, nothing has gone the way the Nets planned.
Durant sat out the 2019 season while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon, Jordan was traded, Nash was hired to replace Atkinson, james harden came and went and Ben Simmons He has yet to make his Nets debut. Irving opted out of the final year of his contract with the team this offseason, but has not received 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 would have liked the Nets to consider working on a sign-and-trade deal with if they couldn’t agree on terms for him to stay in Brooklyn, but the Los Angeles Lakers were the only team that it became known that he was interested, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Irving is now no longer eligible for a sign-and-trade deal. The Nets could still work to trade him as an expiring contract, but Irving would not have a formal say in a potential landing spot.
He has until June 30 of next year to negotiate an extension with the Nets before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
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Nets: owner backs team on Durant request