Kyrie Irving won a title with LeBron James, yet the Nets point guard feels his opportunity with Kevin Durant in Brooklyn is the first time he’s playing with someone who’s just as good of an option to take the final shot at the end of the game — if not better.
So what does that mean when the game is on the line and the Nets need a bucket with the clock is winding down?
“Depends on who’s hot,” Irving said on “The ETC’s with Kevin Durant” to Durant’s co-host Eddie Gonzalez. “I don’t see it as anything other than that, like one-three pick-and-roll or it’s an iso for either one of us or something great for our team. One thing I’ve always been comfortable with is I felt like I was the best option on every team I played for down the stretch. This is the first time in my career where I could look down and be like, ‘That [expletive] can make that shot too, and he’d probably do it a lot easier.’ You know what I mean? I feel like… Okay, well, it’s not really so much deferring. Because, in past situations, if I didn’t take the last shot, I felt guilty.
“I was like, yo, I want this game-winning shot. But also, you want to trust your teammates. Not that I didn’t say I didn’t have the trust in my teammates, but I felt like I was the best option, and now 10 seconds down: go ahead, K. Get us a [expletive] bucket. I don’t care. I’m going to crash the offensive glass. I know how to play the game without the ball. You know what I mean? I’m like, ‘Yo, if he makes [or] misses, I’m living with it,’ and if I make [or] miss, he’s living with it. And I think when you mash that up together, hey, now you get to really see it: two guys that are unselfish at end of the game. But going for that game-winner, we’re trying to make it, and that’s all I care about.”
Gonzalez then asked Durant if he would stand in the corner while Irving handled the ball:
Most definitely. Like he said, when you look at somebody and you know that they can make shots the same way you can or better, the best part about being in this position of power, and being a leader of a team where people look up at you, is I enjoy getting out the way and letting others flourish and being a decoy. I really enjoy knowing that me standing in this corner may give Ky or Caris [LeVert] or Taurean or Joe Harris just a little bit more space to do their thing.
So standing out [of] the way and taking myself out [of[ play — I learned this a lot in Golden State: sometimes the best thing for you to do is just get out [of] the way. You know what I mean? Especially both sides of the floor, you’re not needed at some points. And I feel like late in the games, it might be some of those situations worse where it’s like, ‘Yo, K, go sit in the corner and drag this six[-foot-]nine, seven[-foot-]four wingspan dude out here with you, so they can’t give me a good contest and paint.’ So I think we’re going to have situations where we [are] both going to have to play the side, and you never know when those situations are going to come up, but I think we [are] both prepared to kind of go do your thing.