Las Vegas- Uncertain status of Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving is hanging during the Nets off-season. When the training camp begins, both disgruntled stars may remain on the team. But the young players on the roster don’t seem to hold their breath.
Nets is preparing to chip off the Las Vegas Summer League against Bucks on Friday. Durant’s trade demand that dominates all headlines.. Talk to the young Nets who played with Durant and Irving last season. They reflect the air of resignation to reality, rather than any hope of regaining it.
“Yes, they were very helpful to me during the season, so what they taught me in my first year, whether I was with them or not, and all the vets I I think I always remember what I said, “Kessler Edwards said after practicing Thursday. “So I’m glad I could experience it in my first year. I always keep such things with me.”
Edwards said in Chris Carrino’s mid-week podcast “Voice of the Nets” that both Durant and Irving gave him a pre-match pep talk that boosted his confidence, and a second-year pro said he was again. I admitted that I may not have that feeling.
“Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, those people [gave me] I’m confident and they talked to me a lot before the match, “Edwards said in a podcast. “I feel like I’ll probably never get it again.”
Durant has been unobtrusive since he requested a deal a week ago. The drama held up free agents and dominated backpages, broadcast waves and news cycles.But obviously not Daily chatter on the Nets Summer League roster..
“Yes, I’m just looking at everything. We don’t really talk about it. Just wait and see what happens,” Edwards said. “I just focused on this summer’s league.”
Perhaps more than any other net, Cam Thomas, who won the co-MVP honor as a rookie in the Summer League last year, was placed under Durant’s wings. Under their humorous trash talk, there was a mentor-mentee relationship, and Durant and Irving hired aggressively talented guards under their respective wings.
Now Thomas seems to know completely that he will have to leave the nest. More precisely, the nest may be leaving him.
“Yes, only he and Kylie really, I’ve connected a lot with them, so no matter what happens, they’re my brothers. I’m still calling them or something I’ll send them a text message about it, “Thomas said. “That’s what it is. It’s part of the business. Hopefully everything works in our favor. But you just have to move your life forward. That’s the reality. “
But the bigger question is whether Durant or Irving sent him a text message.
In his “Posted Up” podcast, Yahoo Sports and TNT deputy reporter Chris Haynes said Durant was “darkened” and contacted him to touch the base and measure his interest over the past week. It was traded to their team that did not respond to other NBA stars.
In essence, Durant is mostly underground.
“I sent him a text message last week, which was the last time I talked to him,” said Thomas. “I haven’t talked to him since then.”
Adam Kapoln, head coach of the Long Island Nets and promoted to an assistant spot for Steve Nash’s staff, coaches Nets in the Summer League. He said he hadn’t talked to young players about Durant Irving’s soap opera and claimed he didn’t intend to do so.
While the entire NBA world checked alerts, monitored ESPN’s tickers, and hung on all the scraps of news, Thomas claimed it wasn’t.
“No. But that’s what it is. It’s part of the business,” said Thomas. “They make their decision, they make them, but I’m focusing on the Summer League at this point.”
