Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets reacts in the game against the Washington Wizards at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC, February 1, 2020. /VCG
Sean Marks, general manager of the Brooklyn Nets, told reporters that the team's All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving will undergo surgery on his right shoulder and thus will miss the rest of the 2019-20 NBA season.
The impingement in his right shoulder has been upsetting Irving for quite a while this season and cost him 25 straight games.
"It's very unique. It's the first time I've ever had such a significant feeling in my shoulder where I'm going up to shoot jump shots and I can't really lift my shoulder," said Irving last month.
Kyrie Irving (L) and Kevin Durant (R) of the Brooklyn Nets talk to each other during the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, December 8, 2019. /VCG
Irving and Kevin Durant joined the Nets together last summer and signed maximum contracts with the team. Durant is still recovering from his Achilles tendon injury and thus has not made any appearance. Irving played 20 games for the Nets and averaged 27.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game.
Currently, the Nets rank seventh in the Eastern Conference, leading the eighth-place Orlando Magic and ninth-place Washington Wizards by 1.5 and 4.5 games, respectively. They still have 28 games to go in the rest of the regular season. Without Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie will be the team's go-to guy for the future two to three months if he stays healthy.
Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets handles the ball in the game against the Washington Wizards at the Capital One Arena, February 1, 2020. /VCG
Considering that both Irving and Durant signed long deals with Brooklyn, the team doesn't have to rush this season. In fact, their franchise players staying healthy matters the most to the team at the moment.
However, one thing may bother Brooklyn in the future: the chemistry between Irving and his teammates. Brooklyn finished the 34 games without him 17-17. By contrast, in the 20 games Irving played, the team won 8 of 12.
As an individual player, Irving has elite isolation skills but since he left the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2017, he has not proven that he is a qualified leader. Perhaps he and Durant can work on that during their time away from the court.