Colin Cowherd: “Kyrie Irving scored 50 points last night and lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves at home. Congratulations, this is what you wanted when you left LeBron and left the Celtics, wanting to be ‘THE MAN’. You got the most shots, you got the most points, and you got the last shot… CONGRATS, YOU DA MAN! The Nets starting five is Kyrie, Joe Harris, umm.. Levert, what’s that kid’s name? Caris Levert, Tayshaun Prince, and Jarrett Allen who had six points. My bad, TAUREAN Prince; sorry I haven’t watched many of their games in the last couple years. Tiny and brittle Kyrie Irving can’t do any ‘Load Management’ here, he’s gotta play 78 games and 38 minutes. The NBA has a weird thing going on where the stars want nights off and yet want to be ‘The Man’. Well, if you want to be the man and you go to a team with a bunch of B- players, you can’t take a lot of nights off. ‘But Colin, Kevin Durant is coming back!’… You STILL can’t take nights off. Have you seen the Brooklyn roster?? You think that’s a 60-win team with KD and Kyrie taking nights off? NO, that’s a non-playoff team in the West and a 7 or 8 seed in the East. The only time load management has worked in the NBA was with Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors and Clippers. And that worked because Toronto and Los Angeles were/are really deep teams.” (Full Video Above)
Listen to Colin Cowherd explain why the Brooklyn Nets better not mess around and experiment with ‘Load Management’ the next couple seasons with new stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
Colin is not a big fan of the Nets supporting cast and says even with Durant expected to make his debut next season, he doesn’t see the Nets finishing any higher than a 7 or 8 in the East unless KD and Kyrie commit to playing in at least 78 games over the course of the season, and play 38 minutes a night.
Kyrie is coming off a 50-point performance Wednesday night in a game the Nets LOST to the Timberwolves. Colin says the Nets are in real trouble if Kyrie expects to be THE MAN in Brooklyn while KD is out, and yet only play in 65 games. Irving played in just 67 games last year, and most if not all of those absences were healthy scratches.
Colin details why he thinks there are going to be some rough years in Brooklyn if Kyrie and KD go full load management, and says that strategy only works when the star has a deep team around him like Kawhi Leonard did with the Raptors last year.
Check out the video above.