Kevin Durant requested a trade, leaving Kyrie Irving and the Nets, but why? The NBA offseason is getting wild. But the Nets stay taking Ls. They had the Big 3 in which the Nets traded away everything for a first round exit. They somehow rebuilt with nothing, got two superstars, traded for another, and tragedy struck. This Nets Big 3 only played 16 games together. Now a huge part of that was the vaccine mandate and now that it’s gone, Kyrie should play 50-60 games and maybe what Ben Simmons said is going to be true. Sike…KD ain’t even there. **And this brings up what I’ve said years ago.** The Kyrie problem. And no it’s not being interested in other passions or even taking games off. This isn’t like Paul George and Westbrook. Durant isn’t leaving because of on-court issues. There’s a reason why KD might be open to playing with Kyrie again. He’s seen the pinnacle and he’s chasing after it again Kyrie might have the craziest sound bites in NBA history, but this video ain’t even about that. Kevin Durant has requested a trade and before we get into the whole, KD and Kyrie aren’t friends, that’s probably cap. They are still probably cool with each other, but the professional relationship didn’t work. Yet Durant has specific goals for his legacy. He’s trying to win a chip as the clear #1 on a team that clearly wouldn’t win without him, the Warriors winning really got KD scrambling. You would think that’s still the Nets with Kyrie opting in, but there’s one important factor. Kyrie is one of the most gifted players to have ever touched a basketball, but the knock on him is whether he’ll actually play. However, let’s really look at how available Kyrie has been over the past couple years. Apart from last season and the shoulder injury in 2019-20, Kyrie has played over 70% of games in the last 6 seasons. In fact, the season before covid, Kyrie played 88% of the games that season. So besides the personal time off, Kyrie has surprisingly been there in the regular season. Kyrie has missed significant chunks in the playoffs due to a knee surgery and a freak landing, What I think I’d be more worried about is his performance in the playoffs. The 2018-19 playoffs with the Celtics was horrible (show Kyrie lowlight from the 2019 playoffs). Kyrie had 9 points in Game 2 against the Bucks and only 15 in elimination. Now we saw a haphazard Nets this last playoffs. But we’ve also seen Kyrie still have big games in the playoffs like Game 1 against the Celtics. While basketball players are meant to be professionals, this doesn’t mean that they don’t have personal feelings that can get in the way of chemistry. Kyrie is well aware of the optics. I said this years ago and I will play the clip again. Kyrie has seen chaotic leadership work. Promises to Kyrie have been broken and he’s broken promises. To Kyrie, the NBA is now a business that he can choose to be a part of. But this uncertainty is what ruins chemistry. How can Nets players take Kyrie’s word seriously when he said the same thing to Boston? The issue with Kyrie isn’t that he’ll miss games. The issue is that the Nets don’t have a true leader. Kevin Durant is a hooper. Man doesn’t care about anything but hoops. Kyrie and KD on the court don’t have chemistry issues, but this attitude clearly drove Harden away. Harden was like nah, I ain’t sign up for this and peaced out. On a team like the Suns or Heat, there are veterans who will speak up, who’ll help control a locker room. Any players on the Nets don’t know if Kyrie is really rocking with them. They don’t know if this guy is truly giving it his all or whether he’s looking for the next way out. It’s the same pressure teammates feel when LeBron is on a team and they don’t know whether LeBron is going to trade them or leave if they don’t play well. That’s another part of culture. There was no one to reign in Kyrie or even Durant himself. The Heat have Pat Riley and that man told LeBron to shut up and listen to Spoelstra, got Shaq to lose weight, this man don’t care. Monty Williams is a strong coach who can get a lot out of role players. The Nets didn’t have anyone like that. So maybe Kyrie and KD in another setting is actually better. Maybe that offsets Kyrie’s issues, maybe that organization already has a leader that gives structure and KD can just go hoop. Most of Kyrie teammates have stated that they don’t have any issues with Kyrie, in fact they liked him, but a few have come up to say they haven’t understood him. On the Cavs, Kyrie wouldn’t even talk to his teammates during certain playoff stretches. Man’s wylin. We saw it on the Celtics in 2018-19 when they kept losing, they couldn’t adjust. The Nets front office has also faltered. Not truly standing behind players and the players noticed, but again very normal for Kyrie and very normal for LeBron.