NBA headlines have been dominated by Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets the last few days and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. What is occurring between the two sides is unprecedented stuff and garnering a ton of attention.
Irving is currently suspended for at least five games and that suspension could last beyond that point.
The apology that he issued on his Instagram hours after the suspension was announced was a good step in the right direction, but far from enough to appease Brooklyn.
The Nets have set a clear checklist of things they want to see Irving accomplish before they will consider letting him play again. There are some reports that the list was made specifically because the team doesn’t believe Irving will accomplish all of them.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kyrie Irving, Brooklyn Nets & Miami Heat Updates
That could eventually lead to Irving being outright released from the team. If that were to occur, it would be interesting to see which franchises would show interest in bringing him on. One executive that spoke to The Athletic believes the Miami Heat could show interest in the mercurial point guard.
“It’s gonna take a special organization and coach to want to deal with the guy. Miami comes to mind, but Miami might say, ‘We’re good; we don’t want to deal with it.’ … But if you don’t have the reputation with one of your players or the coach or the front office guy, where you’re one of the larger figures in the league, I just don’t know why you take that on because he seems pretty hard to manage.”
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kyrie Irving, Brooklyn Nets & Miami Heat Updates
Irving is a max player skill set-wise, but there is a lot more that goes into a franchise committing a long-term deal to a player and Irving falls short in virtually every other part. All of the baggage that comes along with having him on the roster is something that would take a strong cultured franchise to handle.
Miami has as strong of culture as any franchise in the NBA. Led by Pat Riley, respect is commanded from top to bottom as everyone buys in. They have the pieces in place to handle a player with the wild card personality of Irving, but it is anyone’s guess if they’d be willing to put up with it.
“You don’t know when he’ll be available. He already wasn’t that durable coming into it, but now he’s sitting out for vaccinations, he’s making these comments. So he’s the opposite of a commodity, man, which is what you want a player who’s getting paid that much to be — a trustworthy (person where) you know exactly what you’re gonna get. And even if you know they have an injury profile where they might miss a certain number of games, you can bake that into the equation. With him, it’s just so hard to discern when he’s going to be available and what makes him tick.”
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kyrie Irving, Brooklyn Nets & Miami Heat Updates
The only thing that Irving has proven during his tenure with the Nets is that you cannot count on him to be available regularly. He cannot control injuries, but he has missed plenty of games in what is his fourth season with the Nets for things within his control that he won’t be worth the headache for most franchises.
