Is Kyrie Worth it?

The experiment in Brooklyn is underway. The newest super power duo of the NBA, led by first time head coach Steve Nash, are 6-6 after last night's win against the Denver Nuggets thanks in part to the near triple double from Kevin Durant. The other half of the duo though, Kyrie Irving, has been MIA. Irving's last game was on January 5th in a win against Utah where in 30 minutes he scored 29 points with 6 rebounds and 5 assists an impressive stat line considering that Kevin Durant didn't play that night. Irving has had bouts of genius on the hardwood when he hasn't been the "main guy" but for the most part Irving has been more of a distraction than he has been a positive for the majority of the teams he's been on. Sure Irving has won a championship, but would he have been put in the position to hit the game winning 3 against the Golden State Warriors while on the Cleveland Cavaliers had it not been for LeBron James? When Irving departed for Boston and promised to lead that very young team to victory some would say that the Celtics were better while Irving was off the floor rather than while he was on the floor.

And now with Irving having been MIA for that last few games citing "personal reasons" and with videos coming out of him partying it up mask-less and with a sure fire quaratine in his future after a few rounds of Covid tests a few questions just come to mind: when is Irving going to play again? Did Durant sign up to be playing by himself? How is Steve Nash really dealing with Irving's behavior? Are the Nets going to hold Irving responsible and if they do how is Irving going to respond to that? You would think Kevin Durant being the best player on the team and the most decorated player on the team would step up and get into Irving's face and try to put him in line, but I'm not sure that's Durant-type behavior. Kevin Durant isn't known as an "in your face kind of leader" he was just ready to jump ship once things got testy in Golden State. The experiment is underway, but who knew it brought a circus tent with it.