…if they convinced the Nets to wash their hands of KD/Kyrie in exchange for Middleton/Holiday/picks/swaps? A Big 3 of Giannis/KD/Kyrie cannot be stopped, can it? 😬 I ask myself who could feasibly take on KD AND Kyrie, just in case they’re both going full-on-brat behind the scenes and saying they will both sit-out 2022-2023 if they are not traded somewhere else together—and this is the only path I can see for that to happen. And it scares the daylights out of me.
That possibility alone, no matter how remote, may be reason to throw JB/Grant/Pritchard/picks/swaps at them for KD, and hope LA gives up multiple picks/Westbrick for Kyrie. It would not surprise me if Kyrie/KD are saying Kyrie to LA and KD to a contender, or Kyrie/KD together somewhere else—one of those two scenarios, or no KD/Kyrie in 2022-2023 and any team interested in KD is going to hear about it, so good luck, Brooklyn. That’s how bananas this player collusion/Klutch shenanigans has become…
Is this based on anything? Or just chaos?
Just a what-if:
What if Kyrie and KD have both said to Brooklyn here are the three options for you and any trading partner considering KD:
1) Kyrie to LA and KD to a contender
Or
2) Kyrie/KD both to the same contender
Or
3) If not 1 or 2, no KD and no Kyrie in 2022-2023. In other words, they legit threaten to sit-out the season (they’ve seen the Simmons loophole up close and personal), and Brooklyn gets nothing. We already saw Kyrie basically carry out a threat to not play on principle, so do they really want to roll the die again?
If the above happens, who blinks first if LA makes it clear they don’t even want Kyrie any more? I’d say Brooklyn because they need revenue more than KD/Kyrie need 2022-2023, and I’d say a deal that requires moving both KD/Kyrie cannot be topped by the Bucks with Middleton/Holiday (still a better combo than AD/Westbrick, and no other duo that tops those two would be on the table). Nets wash their hands of the nightmare and work over time to move Middleton and Holiday for pieces in order to get more than whatever picks the Bucks deal.
The big question for the Celtics: What are the odds of this? Are KD and Kyrie bananas enough to orchestrate such a situation? If the probability is not zero, we ought to do something to get KD and help facilitate Kyrie to LA (item/scenario 1 above) otherwise we might be facing a Giannis/KD/Kyrie Bucks team around the corner (item/scenario 2 above).