sp6r=underrated wrote:I'm a Knicks fan but I come in peace. My two cents.
Welcome, and thanks for your thoughts. In brief:
1. Nets need to view Kyrie and Durant as separate transactions. They came to the Nets as a package but haven't done anything for the Nets that warrants management viewing them as a package now. If you guys had say made 2 CFs, won a title, I'd say you would owe them some loyalty. But they didn't give you your money's worth and now just view them as separate entities.
Yeah, that was pretty much a pipedream from day one, after things went south. The Nets gave these chuckleheads their golden opportunity to play Batman & Robin in BRK, and they found a way to blow it. Unless keeping them together works for *just* the right trade, it's simply not happening, no how.
2. There is a negotiation concept called best alternative to a negotiated agreement. It basically means asks yourself what is the best alternative to a completed trade (in this case). If the proposed trade isn't better than the alternative don't do the trade.
The best alternative for a completed Durant trade is 4 years of a locked in Kevin Durant who will be 37 at the end of his contract. KD is a mostly rational actor, who while a dolt, knows his only alternative is retirement. And if he intentionally plays poorly he'll never get another big pay day again. If he plays great for the Nets he keeps his trade value up and his leverage to demand a trade goes up too.
The best alternative to a completed Kyrie trade is 1 year of Kyrie. Kyrie is a total nutbar. If he turns in a great season, 75+ strong RS/PS, no drama, he'll get his max somewhere. If he nukes the Nets because he is mad, he has no shot at a max deal. It is in his rational interest to be a good soldier next year. But the dude is a loon so odds are he won't. We're years removed from a normal season from Kyrie.
This all makes sense and might somehow work in a parallel universe, but it's very unlikely in this one. Too many bridges burned as I see it on both ends. Also, these guys are both injury risks, and KD getting hurt with anything significant would be a disaster for the Nets hopes of getting reasonable value for them.
But the Nets have a recourse if he goes full moron. Tell him at the beginning of the season, if he acts the fool, Nets will sit him with pay and he'll enter free agency with his last full RS/PS, that had no drama and high level play, being 2017. His agent will tell him he has no shot at a max if that happens.
Unfortunately, you can't "tell" these guys anything, even if it's 100% in their best interests. They exist in their own little bubbles, far from reality, and I'm pretty sure both think that Kyrie's value is going to be great next offseason, no matter what happens this season.
4. I think there is a high probability someone will offer a deal worth doing for Kyrie. He'll be outta here most likely shortly. And if I'm the Nets I find that fine. As I said these are seperate transactions getting rid of Kyrie quickly makes clear to Durant that duo is dead.
First of all, the duo is already dead, but they can still be close friends in real life, on their phones, webcamming, etc. Second, the list of Kyrie suitors is not great, led by the Lakers and few other options. Whatever we get for him is going to be a far cry from his pure bball value. That's how far he's tanked his rep & reliability. C'est la vie.
5. I think people are underselling Durant coming back. A lot of ATGs have asked for trades that never happened. Hakeem asked for one and didn't get it. Nor did Kobe. And in both of those cases titles resulted in resulted in Houston/LA.
You're not wrong, but again, the number of burned bridges makes that highly unlikely, nor is it even in the Nets best interest for them to play. If either of them was a little more mature, professional, well-rounded and self-aware, all that might be different. Also, Tsai has evidently had enough of them, is probably more disgusted than anyone else at this point, and that's another tough road to overcome.
