Nets' Kevin Durant remains silent in wake of Kyrie Irving trade
Nets forward Kevin Durant looks during a timeout against the Clippers in the first half of an NBA game at Barclays Center on Monday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Some 19 months have passed since the last time Spencer Dinwiddie was a member of the Nets, but he paid enough attention to his former team to make a pretty sharp observation Tuesday.
“It’s been a year and a half, but it feels like five to be honest,” Dinwiddie said when asked what he thought about all that had transpired since he had been gone.
When it comes to drama, you almost have to measure time for the Nets in dog years. This is a team where what feels like a season’s worth of twists and turns is often compressed into just a matter of days.
Take what has transpired since Kyrie Irving issued a trade demand on Friday. On Sunday, the Nets sent him to Dallas for Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith and three draft picks. Since then, according to an ESPN report, the organization has been in discussions with Kevin Durant, their sole remaining superstar, about the future of the team and they have been active on several fronts trying to upgrade the team before Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline.
It’s not clear whether Durant, who is rehabbing a torn MCL, was at Barclays Center Tuesday night to watch the Nets lose, 116-112, to the Phoenix Suns, a team that has featured prominently in Durant trade rumors.
It’s also not clear what he thinks about the sudden emergence of Cam Thomas, who became the youngest player in the NBA to score 40 or more points in three straight games. The 21-year-old Thomas scored 43 points Tuesday, after scoring 47 and 44 in his last two games.
Nor is it clear whether Durant will be able to play in the All-Star Game on Feb. 19. Durant, who has never played in an All-Star Game as a Net, said on a podcast a few weeks ago that he wanted to come back several games before the All-Star Game. TNT is reporting that Durant, who injured his knee on Jan. 9 in Miami, will not be back on the court until after the game.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said Tuesday that the team got a “good update from the doctor” who examined Durant on Monday. Vaughn, however, would not commit to a timetable for Durant’s return.
“I won’t step across that line a little bit, but what I will say is the days are adding up and he has progressed,” Vaughn said. “Whether that’s going to be enough of a progression, I really can’t answer that one.”
What does appear to be clear: Durant is not happy. Usually one of the more active players on social media, Durant has not posted since the Irving trade. He also left Barclays Center after Monday night’s matchup against the Clippers without stopping to talk to a group of reporters or even making eye contact.
Durant is in the first year of a four-year, $194 million extension that he signed when Irving and James Harden were still with the Nets. Over the summer, after the Nets were swept by the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, Durant asked to be traded. The Nets were unable to make a trade for him that they thought worthwhile, and Durant was talked into staying.
Before he was injured, the 34-year-old Durant was having an MVP-caliber season, averaging 29.7 points while shooting 55.9%. The Nets were also the hottest team in the NBA when he went down, having won 18 of 20 games in a stretch that included a 12-game win streak.
A number of players, including Thomas and Nic Claxton, have said they were stunned by Irving’s sudden request to be traded. It’s not known if Durant, who came to the Nets as a package deal with Irving in the summer of 2019, was also blindsided by the request.
After his first practice with the Mavericks in Dallas, Irving was asked about the request and sort of shrugged off the breakup.
“It didn’t work out,” Irving said. “We’re still brothers. It’s a business at the end of the day.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
