Five plotlines for the NBA offseason: Kyrie’s future and exits at the Warriors

Here’s the thing about this year’s NBA free agency: there might not be a lot of unrestricted free agent movement. There won’t be a lot of major free agents out there, nor are there a lot of suitors (at the moment). At time of writing, only the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic have a significant amount of cap space.

Does this mean nothing will happen after free agency officially starts at 6pm EST on Thursday? Absolutely not, this summer should provide us with plenty of storylines whether they revolve around free agent signings, blockbuster trades or just general franchise upheavals.

Potentially the biggest story of the summer might have already been squashed. Just a few days ago, it looked as if the Brooklyn Nets were about to split up as Kyrie Irving was rumored to be opting out of his $36.9m player’s option, potentially signing with the Los Angeles Lakers for the $6m midlevel exception.

Eventually, Irving whipped out the calculator and realized that this was significantly less than $36.9 million and opted in to the final year of his deal in Brooklyn. This was a relief to the Nets, who were worried about Kevin Durant asking out if Irving were to depart.

However, now that Irving has opted in, it’s still possible that the Nets could pursue a sign-and-trade with another team (including the Lakers). It’s also not impossible that Irving’s unreliability has made Durant wonder whether the whole Nets experiment is worth it. Or, yeah, and there’s also the “can Ben Simmons actually play basketball at all” question. The Nets have leapt one hurdle, but there are more to come for sure.

We can debate the wisdom of the Lakers adding Irving to their roster at all – the last time