What do you want to do with Kyrie?

[Riconet]

Hi everyone -- I'm curious about how people feel about Kyrie and what the Nets should do at this fairly interesting juncture.

Full disclosure: I detest Kyrie (and this is despite being a big Duke fan and of almost all of the Duke guys in the NBA). I am continually amazed at how many people I speak with or interact with online who love Kyrie, defend him, describe him as an elite player, etc. -- despite his whacked-out behavior, frequent injuries, utter lack of playoff success without LeBron and trail of destruction wherever he goes.

My guess is that the Kyrie supporters skew younger in age and that those who are fed up with him skew older. If you're so inclined and you post in this thread, I'd be curious as to your age range (16-20, 20-25, 26-30, 30-35, 36+, or whatever else you'd like to say).

As for the poll, I chose option #3, because while I'm not giving Kyrie an extension this summer, or a contract in the future longer than 2 years under any circumstances, I would like to see what the Nets would look like with KD and Kyrie and a healthy Simmons, Harris and Curry plus O'Neale and another year of experience from Claxton, Edwards and Sharpe.

I also think Kyrie, although he would never admit it, has been chastened by his experiences this summer -- i.e. he's realized that no one in the NBA wants to commit to him, and if he wants another fat contract, which he definitely does, he needs to deliver a relatively drama-free season.

[Netaman]

i voted 3 but am also fine with 4.

keeping kyrie depends on 1 thing - if kd rescends his request, can you get anything back that helps the team at a championship level?

if kd gets dealt you obviously trade kyrie too and get some picks.

[MrDollarBills]

I voted 3, but I'm also fine with 4. Kyrie is in Deron Williams territory as far as I'm concerned, if not worse.

[N Ireland Nets]

I want to run it back with Irving for 1 year with him being motivated due it being a contract year while playing with KD. If Irving performs to his level of ability I would extend Irving before the end of the season to match up length of contracts with KD. But I would extend Irving if he plays well.

I don't understand the "blow it up next season" as we don't own our own picks moving forward so we can't just blow it up.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Option 3.

[Rastas]

Pump up his value and Dump him by the deadline.
Attach a short non max extension if he agrees to it (say 2 or 3yrs @ 30m per) to not frighten away possible suiters.

If Kev is not ok with this - do the same for him (minus the extension).

Def better Trade deals available by next Deadline.

If both appear to be playing unselfish good ball and want to stay then you keep them.
Any hint of more Drama then you take the best offers at the deadline.
No need to rush - the team looks decent even if both are sitting out. (def better than Rockets)

[MrDollarBills]

Pump up his value and Dump him by the deadline.
Attach a short non max extension if he agrees to it (say 2 or 3yrs @ 30m per) to not frighten away possible suiters.

If Kev is not ok with this - do the same for him (minus the extension).

Def better Trade deals available by next Deadline.

If both appear to be playing unselfish good ball and want to stay then you keep them.
Any hint of more Drama then you take the best offers at the deadline.
No need to rush - the team looks decent even if both are sitting out. (def better than Rockets)

This is the way.

[Whiskey Slick]

36+, and I, like you (original poster), detest Kyrie.

So at least with me your thesis (Kyrie haters skew older) holds water.

My guess is you drew this conclusion because older fans remember a time, fondly, when being a "team player" mattered.

Whereas younger fans, Millennials and Get Z, grew up in an age when players being "individual talents" first and foremost, and placing that as well as their worldview and social issues above the team, is perfectly fine and even to be admired.

Am I on the right track?

[NetsWorld]

If Kyrie plays well this year and Nets are a top seed, Nets are not trading him and that would be the asinine thing to do if you have a good shot to win it all. But the playoffs proved the chemistry between Kyrie/KD is not good and ISO ball won't work. They need a third guy and the hope is that with the shooting depth and Ben Simmons, they will finally push through. Harden became so turnover prone and couldn't finish as strong from the hamstring injury; with a younger Simmons and hopefully a healthy back, the hope is his defense will get improve us to at least top 10 and get Kyrie/KD good looks. They NEED Ben. When I look back at the Nets-Bucks series of last year, Games 1 and 2 proved that with shooters, Kyrie/KD are effective and thankfully we replaced deadweight offense with shooters this year; with a facilitator, they become ever more dangerous.

[Riconet]

I want to run it back with Irving for 1 year with him being motivated due it being a contract year while playing with KD. If Irving performs to his level of ability I would extend Irving before the end of the season to match up length of contracts with KD. But I would extend Irving if he plays well.

I don't understand the "blow it up next season" as we don't own our own picks moving forward so we can't just blow it up.

Well, by "blow it up" I mean let Kyrie walk and trade KD for the best package we can get. I agree that we can't tank for a high draft pick since we don't own our own picks, but I think that is a terrible strategy anyway. I think the Nets would have enough assets following a KD trade that they could rebuild into a playoff team pretty quickly after that type of "blowup," albeit not a title contender. Part of that rebuild would be to set themselves up to grab the next superstar that became available and wanted to come to NYC (and this time did not come with the Kyrie and DJ baggage) -- and the Nets will be pretty high on everyone's list due to NYC.

[Riconet]

36+, and I, like you (original poster), detest Kyrie.

So at least with me your thesis (Kyrie haters skew older) holds water.

My guess is you drew this conclusion because older fans remember a time, fondly, when being a "team player" mattered.

Whereas younger fans, Millennials and Get Z, grew up in an age when players being "individual talents" first and foremost, and placing that as well as their worldview and social issues above the team, is perfectly fine and even to be admired.

Am I on the right track?

It's a good question. I'm not sure why younger fans like Kyrie than older fans do -- or for that matter whether that theory is even accurate -- I think it is, but it's based on a limited number of spoken and online conversations, so I would love to gather more data on this.

I think it also might relate to the universal desire of youth not to be pushed around by their parents and other authority figures. Kyrie does what he wants to do, not what "the man" tells him to do, and I think that appeals to younger people, who also enjoy the undeniable flash and dash of Kyrie's game.

The other factor that I think might be relevant is that young people generally haven't had to work with other people in a situation where everyone's livelihoods depend on everyone else pulling his or her weight -- so they don't understand how Kyrie's behavior harms everyone else, or appreciate why that outcome is unacceptable.

Anyway, I'd love to hear the perspective (and age) of anyone who voted for option #1 or any other Kyrie fans here.

[Whiskey Slick]

It's a good question. I'm not sure why younger fans like Kyrie than older fans do -- or for that matter whether that theory is even accurate -- I think it is, but it's based on a limited number of spoken and online conversations, so I would love to gather more data on this.

I think it also might relate to the universal desire of youth not to be pushed around by their parents and other authority figures. Kyrie does what he wants to do, not what "the man" tells him to do, and I think that appeals to younger people, who also enjoy the undeniable flash and dash of Kyrie's game.

The other factor that I think might be relevant is that young people generally haven't had to work with other people in a situation where everyone's livelihoods depend on everyone else pulling his or her weight -- so they don't understand how Kyrie's behavior harms everyone else, or appreciate why that outcome is unacceptable.

Anyway, I'd love to hear the perspective (and age) of anyone who voted for option #1 or any other Kyrie fans here.

Yeah I think there's something to that as well. Older fans were raised in the "office age" or even working outdoors as part of a team so to speak, we even spent most of our leisure time outdoors playing team sports with other kids, so we have a greater appreciation for the necessity to be a "team player" than younger fans who have been raised in the "Tech or Information Age", where they spend more time working or playing as individuals on their computers and phones.

[MrDollarBills]

When you're younger i think player transgressions are easier to just overlook because you're caught up in the player's stardom and hype. I'm an older millennial, and when i was Gen Z's age i was a Jason Kidd and Penny Hardaway fanboy. They could do no wrong in my eyes, because i was enthralled with how cool they were on the court.

I fully knew that Jason Kidd beat his wife, and Penny Hardaway stalked down his daughter's mother with a pistol. I was young, ignorant, and frankly I did not care.

It was easy to overlook that stuff as a kid, now as an adult, not so much. You take a step back and think: what if that was my mother being beaten? What if that was my sister being threatened with a gun? After a certain period of growth, you wonder why you even rooted for men like this to begin with.

Is Kyrie anywhere near as bad as those guys? No. Kyrie's worse transgression is being a garbage teammate, otherwise outside of basketball I have nothing bad to say about him other than he should seek treatment because he clearly has mental health issues that are running unchecked/being self medicated.

But I can see why kids love him and basically don't care what he does to the Nets, or any team he's destroyed in his wake. He's not a bad person persay, and when you see him around young folks and how warm and generous he is towards them it's not really a question as to why he has such a loyal fandom.

That and the sneakers. It's always the sneakers. I never was a Jordan fan, and I have owned his sneakers maybe twice in my life. But ask me how many pairs of Jason Kidd and Penny sneakers i had growing up

[Whiskey Slick]

That and the sneakers. It's always the sneakers. I never was a Jordan fan, and I have owned his sneakers maybe twice in my life. But ask me how many pairs of Jason Kidd and Penny sneakers i had growing up

I'm older than you and when I was a kid all I wore for casual wear, with Jeans or shorts in the summer, was my Dr. J white leather Converse with the red star on the side. I wouldn't even think about buying or wearing anything else ... and YES, I absolutely idolized Julius, that's how I became a Nets fan ... everyone else I knew rooted for the Knicks, but I was 100% down with the ABA and The Doctor was my guy.

Till this day I still think those were the best looking sneakers ever, way cooler than Air Jordan's!

BTW it irks me that Doc is so overlooked as an all-time great.

He's never in that conversation anymore, but he was Jordan and Kobe before there was a Jordan or Kobe.

Watch on YouTube

[Hello Brooklyn]

That and the sneakers. It's always the sneakers. I never was a Jordan fan, and I have owned his sneakers maybe twice in my life. But ask me how many pairs of Jason Kidd and Penny sneakers i had growing up

I'm older than you and when I was a kid all I wore for casual wear, with Jeans or shorts in the summer, was my Dr. J white leather Converse with the red star on the side, high-tops in the winter with Jeans and low cuts in the summer with shorts. I wouldn't even think about buying or wearing anything else ... and YES, I absolutely idolized Julius, that's how I became a Nets fan ... everyone else I knew rooted for the Knicks, but I was 100% down with the ABA and The Doctor was my guy.

Till this day I still think those were the best looking sneakers ever, way cooler than Air Jordan's!

BTW it irks me that Doc is so overlooked as an all-time great.

He's never in that conversation anymore, but he was Jordan and Kobe before there was a Jordan or Kobe.

Watch on YouTube

Thats so cool that you watched Dr. J on the Nets.

Were there a lot of Nets fans in NYC when the Nets were winning ABA Championship? Or was it all just Knicks fans?

[MrDollarBills]

That and the sneakers. It's always the sneakers. I never was a Jordan fan, and I have owned his sneakers maybe twice in my life. But ask me how many pairs of Jason Kidd and Penny sneakers i had growing up

I'm older than you and when I was a kid all I wore for casual wear, with Jeans or shorts in the summer, was my Dr. J white leather Converse with the red star on the side, high-tops in the winter with Jeans and low cuts in the summer with shorts. I wouldn't even think about buying or wearing anything else ... and YES, I absolutely idolized Julius, that's how I became a Nets fan ... everyone else I knew rooted for the Knicks, but I was 100% down with the ABA and The Doctor was my guy.

Till this day I still think those were the best looking sneakers ever, way cooler than Air Jordan's!

BTW it irks me that Doc is so overlooked as an all-time great.

He's never in that conversation anymore, but he was Jordan and Kobe before there was a Jordan or Kobe.

Watch on YouTube

Haha, these are still my favorite sneakers of all time



I'm not even remotely a sneaker head, I wear vans now lol. cheaper, very easy to mix and match with casual wear and they feel comfortable

But yeah its actually pretty cool that you got to watch Doc play as a Net, believe me I heard non stop from older heads growing up in my neighborhood about how nasty Dr. J was. It's a shame that footage seems so sparsely available because I feel like i've yet to really sit down and watch him

I first started watching basketball in the late 80s so my first Nets were Drazen/DC/Kenny Anderson. I was a kid when Drazen passed away and I was devastated. I feel like the franchise has yet to escape that horrible day with all the bad luck that has happened.

[Whiskey Slick]

Thats so cool that you watched Dr. J on the Nets.

Were there a lot of Nets fans in NYC when the Nets were winning ABA Championship? Or was it all just Knicks fans?

BOTH

The Knicks was their NBA team, but the Nets was their ABA team because of ONE MAN ... Julius.

Even all the Knicks fans couldn't get over how incredible Doc was, and they had to watch him play.

A lot of my friends had the Dr. J Converse too, but I was first.

[MrDollarBills]

Thats so cool that you watched Dr. J on the Nets.

Were there a lot of Nets fans in NYC when the Nets were winning ABA Championship? Or was it all just Knicks fans?

BOTH

The Knicks was their NBA team, but the Nets was their ABA team because of ONE MAN ... Julius.

Even all the Knicks fans couldn't get over how incredible Doc was, and they had to watch him play.

A lot of my friends had the Dr. J Converse too, but I was first.

And this is why the Nets were forced to trade Doc to the 76ers before they entered the NBA, because the Knicks were scared

[Whiskey Slick]

But yeah its actually pretty cool that you got to watch Doc play as a Net, believe me I heard non stop from older heads growing up in my neighborhood about how nasty Dr. J was. It's a shame that footage seems so sparsely available because I feel like i've yet to really sit down and watch him.

[Whiskey Slick]

And this is why the Nets were forced to trade Doc to the 76ers before they entered the NBA, because the Knicks were scared

Oh yeah, for sure, they didn't want the best player in the world and the most electrifying talent anyone had ever seen playing in NY. They insisted he had to be dealt for the Nets to get into the NBA.