The Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving era in Brooklyn is now totally and officially over. Days after the Brooklyn Nets dealt Kyrie Irving to Dallas, Brooklyn swung a late night deal with the Phoenix Suns that sends Durant out of town.
Coming back in the mega trade to Brooklyn are forward Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four unprotected future first-round picks, and a 2028 draft pick swap. The Nets are also sending T.J. Warren to Phoenix.
The deal unites Durant with Chris Paul and Devon Booker making Phoenix a team to deal with down the stretch — that is if Durant is back to full form when he returns from his MCL sprain.
As for the Nets, it ends an era of error for the franchise. The Nets tried to piecemeal a championship by teaming Durant with Irving and James Harden. it blew up in their face in spectacular fashion. First Harden was unhappy and demanded a trade last year, which he received to Philadelphia in exchange for Ben Simmons. Irving either battled injuries, COVID-19 policies and his own demons (i.e. his sharing via social media of film linked to antisemitism).
Durant, himself, battled constant injuries — suffering two MCL injuries the past two seasons — a full recovery process from the ACL injury he suffered while with Golden State, as well as trade demands last summer.
In sum it was a disaster from start to finish for the Nets. Now they get to hit the reset button.
