Will a certain domino need to fall before Kyrie Irving chooses his next NBA stop? Jalen Rose believes so.
Irving reportedly has opted out of his contract with the Boston Celtics and soon will become an unrestricted free agent. The star point guard’s potential landing spots seem to be narrowed down to a handful of teams, but it’s tough to figure out which is the true frontrunner. Rose believes the picture will become much clearer once Irving’s good friend and fellow superstar makes his own free agency decision.
“You’ve got to know when to fold ’em, know when to hold ’em and that’s the pattern that Kyrie Irving is in right now. He has to actually wait for Kevin Durant’s decision,” Rose said Monday on ESPN’s “Get Up!” “Because if you’re the Nets, of course you want Kyrie Irving, but do you want him to be the best player on your team based on what happened in Boston? I’ll say this also: To me, the Clippers and the Nets outplayed expectations to the point where those aren’t blank canvases anymore. So to me, if you’re KD and joining the Nets, they’re kind of already established. To me, the Knicks are a blank canvas.”
Should we be so sure Irving and Durant both would prefer taking their talents to a “blank canvas?” Given the amount of scrutiny and frustration both stars have dealt with in recent years, taking their talents to an already well-situated team actually might be more appealing. While restoring championship glory with the Knicks would take their respective legends to a new stratosphere, the potential for utter disaster in New York might be a risk they deem not worth taking.
It seems fair to say the Nets are a much safer bet, and one of Durant’s former teammates claims Brooklyn currently is the frontrunner in the KD sweepstakes.
