Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant disagree on post-up strategy

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant will make their long-awaited Nets debut today in Brooklyn’s preseason opener against the Washington Wizards. We’ve waited over a year for this day when Durant rehabbed from a torn Achilles tendon suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals. While this is just a preseason game, the focus will be squarely on the duo of Superstars who decided when they were free agents around the same time in 2019 that they wanted to play together in Brooklyn.

On the eve of the game, Irving took to Instagram live to discuss myriad topics, including why he is not speaking to the media. But it was when he interviewed Durant and they started discussing the idea of ​​Irving publishing that things got interesting, at least from this scribe’s perspective. Irving said he wanted to post eight times per game. Durant responded, “I don’t think that’s good for the continuity of our offense if our point guard always wants to be below the rim.” The coming and going continued for another 30 seconds. They seem to really disagree with this.

While he’s lighthearted and unlikely to really dictate what the Nets will do on offense this season, Irving’s comments are highlighted by his past issues with his teammates. He walked away from LeBron James at the end of his term in Cleveland and two seasons ago a Celtics teammate criticized him for being “difficult to play.” Is he really already trying to kill the Nets’ offense by requesting eight post-ups per game?

On Durant’s side, Irving shut down at all times. When Irving turned down two different times, KD simply said, “we’ll see” in a “don’t happen” way.

It’s already been an interesting preseason for the Nets with Durant revealing that he will play center for the first time this year when the Nets grow small and rumors spread that the Rockets want Irving in exchange for James Harden. With Durant back and Irving spreading point guard post-ups four times in half, it should only get more interesting as the year progresses. Today we take our first look at the duo in action together. Just keep a close eye on how many times Irving hits the post. I guess it’s less than you want.