Good morning. Let’s basketball.

The Burning of the House of Lords and Commons, J.M.W. Turner, 1834-35

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that Kevin Durant met with Brooklyn Nets franchisee Joe Tsai over the weekend, and told Tsai that he needs to choose between Tsai and the coach and general manager combination of Steve Nash and Sean Marks.

This is quite a turn since it’s largely been assumed that Durant was the primary driver of Nash getting the Nets’ head coach position over Jacque Vaughn, who took over as an interim after Marks fired Kenny Atkinson, reportedly at the behest of Durant and Kyrie Irving. I guess Kyrie wasn’t kidding about the star players truly co-managing the team with the front office!

This whole gambit is patently absurd. Charania is diplomatic and cool, so he doesn’t point out the obvious real reason Durant now wants Marks and Nash gone. Charania reports that Durant has lost confidence in management. But let’s go back to the longlost days of FIVE WEEKS AGO when Durant first made his trade request. Why did that happen? What did Nets management do right before Durant asked out?

They refused to give the deeply unreliable Kyrie Irving a massive contract extension.

Weeks prior to the opening of free agency, it became known that the Nets weren’t offering the long-term contract Kyrie wanted, and for good reason. Kyrie was basically openly begging (through the media) for a competitive contract offer from other teams so he could decline his player option with the Nets. When that didn’t materialize, Kyrie tried to get a trade together. When that didn’t materialize, Kyrie dared to be different to lead us into tomorrow. And uh, opted into his contract.

And within 48 hours or so, Durant’s trade request became public despite the new 4-year extension he signed in 2021 taking effect on July 1.

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It’s not too hard to connect these dots. I bet Kenny Atkinson doesn’t have much trouble connecting the dots on why he was run out of town in the premiere Kyrie-KD season, one in which Durant didn’t even play due to injury. Kyrie and KD valued their brother, DeAndre Jordan, over their boss. They felt their boss was disrespecting their brother by playing a better, younger center over him, and they did what was necessary to rectify the situation. Their brother is on the fringe of the league; the better, younger center was an All-Star last season. C’est la vie.

Without supporting reportage this is just a theory, but it seems like the decision not to extend Kyrie long-term is the source of Durant’s agitation. Kyrie is Durant’s brother. KD stood by Kyrie through the personal leave coinciding with his birthday saga, the vaccine saga, through the related James Harden saga, and is standing by him through the extension saga. Kyrie is at loggerheads with Marks, who runs the front office. I’m not exactly sure where Nash fits in that equation of doom, but Nash was at the head of the snake during the vaccine saga and likely played a big role in helping Marks and Tsai rule that they would not let Irving be a part-time player back in October 2021. Nash is diplomatic in all comments these days, but has been much more positive and effusive about Durant and even, before the trade, Harden than with Kyrie. There doesn’t seem to be much of a relationship or any love there, unlike between Durant and Nash, who had a pre-existing relationship.

My assumption is that Kyrie is simply out on Nash, and so Durant is also out on Nash. Brothers over bosses.

Again, this is all a theory. Durant’s not really talking about any of this stuff, so while I suspect the bulk of Charania’s information is coming from the KD-Kyrie nexus based on how Shams reported out the most recent Kyrie saga and given how unflattering it is to the Nets, we don’t really know why exactly Durant requested a trade or why he’s now giving an ultimatum for regime change, other than the stated reason of having lost confidence in them.

And frankly, I don’t feel all that bad for anyone involved. These folks made their bed. Marks went big game hunting in 2019 free agency having seen Kyrie request a trade a year after winning a title in Cleveland, and souring on a young contender for which he was the alpha in Boston. Kyrie’s particular modus operandi has developed much further in Brooklyn, accelerated by the pandemic and the vaccine mandate. But there was evidence of Irving’s unreliability when Marks chased him down in 2019. Durant didn’t have the same reputation, but friction in Golden State was one of the league’s leading stories for basically that entire 2018-19 season. Marks and Tsai traded vibes for stars. In fact, the way Marks told it when Brooklyn’s 2019 free agent coup happened, they built the vibes specifically to attract the stars. The stars brought their own vibes to the party. And the vibes are frankly not very good.

Nash walked into a situation having replaced someone who got fired for doing his job. What comes around goes around.

I don’t know what Tsai should do. He pushed back the pressure Monday night without actually committing to Marks and Nash.

Joe Tsai @joetsai1999

Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.

August 8th 2022

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They have his support, sure. But is that ‘we’ in Sentence #2 a ‘we’ like Tsai and Marks and Nash, or is it a Royal We implicating Tsai and his wife, who present as a partnership? Only Tsai and those closest to him really know.

And please note that Tsai is committing to “make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.” Kevin Durant is a top-5 player in the NBA. Having him on the court would be in any team’s best interest when the alternative is trading him for far less spectacular players. Is a soon-to-be 34-year-old Durant on a 4-year contract more valuable to the Nets than Sean Marks and Steve Nash? WITHOUT QUESTION OR HESITATION. In a vaccuum, this is a no-brainer.

But we don’t operate in vaccuums, and what Tsai does here could possibly impact the value of his franchise well beyond the next four years. Plus, there’s no guarantee canning Marks and hiring another new coach will placate Durant. The cost probably isn’t merely changing the nameplates on the doors.

Go back to the inciting incident here: Kyrie.

The cost to keep Durant is most likely to replace Marks with a general manager who will sign Kyrie long-term and to replace Nash with a head coach who will completely defer to Kyrie and KD.

Factor all of that in, plus the fact that Tsai is quite likely deeply annoyed by Durant’s allegiance to a dude who showed no allegiance to the other players on the team (to say nothing of the rest of the people who make the franchise run, to say nothing of the rest of humanity trying not to get COVID-19), plus the evidence that if things don’t go well Durant will just turn on the next management team, too: the calculus gets complicated awful quick.

In my heart, I’m rooting for Tsai to redirect the pressure back to Durant and Kyrie: if this is really an ultimatum, are you going to no-show and sacrifice a season? Are you going to Ben Simmons this thing in the presence of Ben Simmons? Are you gonna commit to the mother of all Tweet Through It scenarios?

My brain tells me Tsai won’t do that out of deference to Brooklyn’s nascent fanbase; unlike the 76ers last year, the Nets don’t have a Joel Embiid to keep the team competitive in the absence of a no-show All-Star. So if calling KD’s bluff isn’t on the table, odds are Tsai will have to do one of these three things:

1. Fire Marks and Nash.

2. Trade Durant and Irving.

3. Get Durant to change his mind.

It doesn’t feel like #3 is likely. It doesn’t feel like Tsai wants to do #1. And so here we are, same place we were last week …

… unless Tsai chooses to put the pressure back on Durant, regardless of whether it’s in the best interest of Brooklyn Nets.

Score

Liberty 77, Wings 86 — Dallas clinched a playoff spot, winning their fifth straight game. One more win to clinch No. 6 outright, and the Wings cannot reach Nos. 4 or 5 due to head-to-head tiebreakers. So they might have a couple of tune-up games here in a minute. Marina Mabrey with a career-high 31 on 11/18 shooting. Allisha Gray was money. Teaira McCowan continues to put up numbers (16/9 on 7/9 shooting). This Wings run has been pretty incredible, especially since it’s mostly without Arike Ogunbowale (who sat again). [WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT GODFORSAKEN EWING THEORY WHEN IT COMES TO ARIKE OGUNBOWALE, GET LOST WITH THAT.)

Dallas WWWWWings @DallasWings

Marina? Dancing? On a Monday? Yes.

August 9th 2022

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On the other side, the story of the Liberty season: Sabrina Ionescu puts up numbers (32/7/4) but injuries (this time it’s Natasha Howard, just as Betnijah Laney returns) lead to New York being outmatched. The Liberty can still make the playoffs, though: they are one game out with three to go.

Schedule

All times Eastern.

Storm at Sky, 8, NBA TV — Huge! Potential second round preview
Dream at Aces, 10, CBS Sports Network
Sun at Sparks, 10:30, NBA TV

Taurasi

Diana Taurasi will miss the remainder of the regular season and it doesn’t sound like a week off will have her available for the Mercury’s playoff series, if Phoenix makes it there. Taurasi hasn’t indicated she’ll retire after the season like her best friend Sue Bird … but you wonder. Taurasi’s also a free agent this summer. Hard to imagine her anywhere but Phoenix.

Be excellent to each other.