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Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving could have possibly lost a combined $16 million had the Golden State Warriors not approached the Brooklyn Nets for a D'Angelo Russell sign-and-trade.

When Durant and Irving committed to the Nets, they were set to have approximately $10 million combined in unlikely bonuses as they don't count against the cap.

Because cap space was not required to sign Durant due to the sign-and-trade with the Warriors, the Nets merely needed to structure $1 million in unlikely bonuses for Irving in order to still sign DeAndre Jordan and Nicolas Claxton.

The $1 million in unlikely incentives for Irving is broken into eight $125,000 bonuses, ranging from games played, statistical benchmarks and offensive/defensive rating.

Durant has a $1 million bonus this season based on the Nets reaching the first round of the playoffs or winning at least 43 games.

Via Bobby Marks/ESPN

oh wow...thank god that was avoided!

This makes me feel a lot better now... Jesus Christ

"Durant has a $1 million bonus this season based on the Nets reaching the first round of the playoffs or winning at least 43 games."

Lol KD won't play a minute this season and might get a million dollars for the rest of the team performing well. Guarantee he will still complain to the media about his unfair treatment this season.

Why are they referred to as "unlikely bonuses" ? I'm assuming Irving's representation would not just negotiate incentives he would unlikely meet especially if Durant's incentive of just getting out of the first round is very much possible especially if he were to make an unlikely Nets debut late in the season and continue playing into the 2020 nba playoffs in the weaker eastern conference.

Also Kyrie passed on a likely 5 year $221M supermax extension with the Cavaliers (he most likely would have made the all-nba team as a Cavalier in one or both of the past two seasons if he stayed in Cleveland). Instead he waived his 15% trade kicker and forced a trade to the Celtics where his relationship with that franchise imploded and he left for the Nets on a 4 year $141M max contract. Even if Kyrie opts out after three seasons with the nets to resign for another max deal at a higher salary cap I doubt he makes up the difference in guaranteed dollars of the supermax contract he passed up in the current 5 season block between 19-20 and 23-24. I am guessing Kyrie likely will lose roughly $20-25M in career earnings after higher taxes in NY over the next 5 seasons.

I could've made it to the NBA if I was a foot taller and had a good jump shot, didn't happen.