The Brooklyn Nets are making a clean sweep in free agency. The team will sign Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan, league sources tell ESPN.
Durant will sign a four-year, $164 million deal, while Irving will sign for four years and $141 million, sources said.
Durant is planning to make a formal announcement with details of his plans on Instagram account of The Boardroom, his company’s media network, at 6 p.m., sources said.
Kevin Durant
Durant declined his $31.5 million player option in June, officially setting him up for unrestricted free agency.
He was eligible to remain with the Warriors on a five-year, $221 million deal, or sign a four-year, $164 million deal with another team.
Leading up to free agency, Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman had been in New York, where they mulled the star forward’s free-agency options. Durant had been considering a number of scenarios, including a return to Golden State, while New York and the LA Clippers also were believed to be considerations beyond Brooklyn, sources had told ESPN.
Whichever team won the Durant sweepstakes knew it likely would be without his services for the entire 2019-20 season. Durant ruptured his right Achilles in the second quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, a devastating injury that changed the entire dynamic of the NBA offseason. He underwent surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York on June 12.
The Achilles tear, suffered as he tried to drive by Raptors big man Serge Ibaka in the second quarter of Game 5 in Toronto, came after Durant had missed a month-plus of the playoffs with a right calf injury suffered May 8 against the Houston Rockets in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. The Raptors game had marked his return to the court, but it proved short-lived, and Toronto won the Finals in Game 6 at Oracle Arena.
Durant, who turns 31 in September, finished the postseason averaging 32.3 points per game on 51% shooting from the field, 44% shooting from 3-point range and 90% shooting from the free throw line. He’s the first player in NBA history to average 30 points per game on 50-40-90 shooting in a single postseason (minimum five games).
The second overall pick in the 2007 draft, Durant spent his first nine NBA seasons with Seattle/Oklahoma City, then signed with the Warriors in 2016 to give them a superteam that included fellow All-Stars Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Durant helped lead Golden State to NBA titles in 2017 and ’18, winning Finals MVP both times. He’s a 10-time All-Star (winning MVP of the game in 2012 and ’19) and six-time First Team All-NBA honoree, and also won Rookie of the Year in 2007-08 and league MVP in 2013-14. He’s led the NBA in scoring four times, and his current 27 PPG average ranks sixth all time.
Durant is one of five players to win at least one Rookie of the Year, MVP, Finals MVP, All-Star Game MVP and scoring title, joining LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.
Kyrie Irving
A year ago, it seemed like Irving would be in Boston for the long term.
In a season ticket-holder meeting in October, he declared: “If you’ll have me, I’ll re-sign.” Around the same time, he made a commercial with his father, Drederick, inside an empty TD Garden, and spoke of ensuring no one else ever would wear No. 11 for the Celtics.
| Season | Player | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | Isaiah Thomas | Traded to CLE |
| 1962-63 | Bob Cousy | Retired |
| 1947-48 | Ed Sadowski | Traded to GSW |
| — Elias Sports Bureau | ||
After a disappointing season for the Celtics, though, things are much different now. Individually, Irving had one of his best seasons of his career, and was a deserving second-team All-NBA selection. Boston, however, was not nearly as good as the lofty preseason expectations for the franchise, and flamed out in five games in the second round against the Milwaukee Bucks — with Irving going a combined 21-for-65 in the final three games of that series (all losses).
Along the way, he got into repeated public back-and-forths with the team’s younger players, and also announced after a win over the Toronto Raptors in January that he’d made up with James — a relationship that wasn’t in a good place when Irving requested a trade away from the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017. And his free agency officially became a hot-button topic on Feb. 1 at Madison Square Garden, when he announced, “Ask me July 1,” when asked whether he’d stay in Boston, later adding that, “I don’t owe anybody s—.”
In 67 games last season for Boston, Irving, 27, averaged 23.8 points, along with career highs of 5.0 rebounds and 6.9 assists.
DeAndre Jordan
After 10 seasons with the Clippers, Jordan signed a one-year, $22.9 million deal with the Mavericks last offseason. The center made 50 starts for Dallas, averaging 11.0 points and 13.7 rebounds before being dealt to the Knicks in late January as part of the Kristaps Porzingis blockbuster.
New York convinced Jordan not to seek a buyout after the trade, hoping he could mentor some of the team’s younger big men, notably Mitchell Robinson. Jordan saw his playing time dwindle, as the Knicks went with younger lineups, and he was a DNP-Coach’s Decision in the team’s final seven games.
Jordan, who turns 31 on July 21, acknowledged it was “strange” not to be a regular but called the decision mutual. And while New York endured another playoff-less season, going a league-worst 17-65, the unrestricted free agent said he liked the franchise’s direction.
“I love it here,” Jordan told the New York Post late in the season. “I love what (first-year coach David Fizdale) is doing here. Obviously there’s a lot of things that these guys want to do to get better, to better the organization. We’ll see what happens.”
An 11-year veteran and three-time All-NBA player, Jordan holds career averages of 9.6 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. His 66.9 field goal percentage ranks first in the NBA among active players.
Information from ESPN’s Tim Bontemps was used in this report.
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