There are plenty of Brooklyn Nets problems that need fixing early in the 2022-23 NBA season. This Nets season, the defense hasn’t been great, the 3-point shooting is subpar, and the rebounding has been absolutely atrocious. Those are all early-season Nets problems that Ime Udoka (or whoever the next Nets coach is) needs to fix in order to make a run this season. However, there is one problem that is so big and so all-consuming that it needs to be fixed immediately, or it will tank the team’s 2022-23 campaign. And his name is Kyrie Irving.

The Nets need to get rid of Kyrie Irving

The 2022 Brooklyn Nets really do have a host of roster- and performance-based problems that Jacque Vaughn or the next coach of the team truly needs to focus on making better.

The team is shooting 35.1% from deep, which is 18th in the NBA right now. The Nets also rank 18th or worse in the defensive four factors stats (opponents’ effective field goal percentage, opponents’ turnover percentage, defensive rebound percentage, and opponents’ free throws per field goal attempts). And, with just 39.5 rebounds per game, only the Philadelphia 76ers are worse at clearing the glass.

All that is basketball stuff that can be fixed with strategy or shifting focus or tweaking the rotation or the roster.

The team’s biggest problem is that for the last two weeks, everyone in the organization has been inundated with conversations about antisemitic documentaries. And before that, it was COVID-19 vaccinations. And before that, it was AWOL players and birthday parties.

Brooklyn can’t focus on what ails them on the court until they take care of the thorn in the organization’s side off of it.

Kyrie Irving is a cancer. He is a controversy magnet who thinks he’s much smarter than he is (and he is smart), and playing high-level, team-oriented, competitive, winning basketball obviously isn’t a top priority for him.

He’s apparently just as happy to sit home and collect his $36.5 million per year — or even not collect the money as he did for most of 2021 — as he is to be by Kevin Durant’s side on the floor of the Barclays Center.

And here’s the thing. When Irving has played this year, his stats are eye-popping. He’s averaging 26.9 points, 5.1 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game. Those numbers were even higher before he sleep-walked through his final game prior to his suspension.

However, the Nets were a putrid 2-6 while Irving was posting those offensive numbers. Without him for the last three games, they’re 2-1.

Sure, that is an incredibly small sample size, but in these last three games — on the road, mind you — the Nets' defense has held their opponents under 100 points for the first three times this season and, in turn, came away with a 42-point win, a four-point win, and a two-point loss.

With Kyrie Irving and his black cloud over the Nets season gone, for now, the team has become greater than the sum of its parts.

After starting the season with six games of 30-points or more, Durant hasn’t scored more than 28 since Irving’s been gone. However, in those early huge scoring games, Durant (often on the court with Irving), only had one game with a positive plus/minus. In the last three games without Kyrie, Durant has been +35, +13, and +1.

Not having Irving and his selfish basketball and even more selfish actions and public declarations have seemingly been freeing for the Nets. For that reason alone, the solution to the Nets' biggest problem thus far is to get rid of him.

And this wouldn’t just be addition by subtraction (although there is a good deal of that). With his $36.5 million contract, Irving would have to bring back at least some warm bodies in a trade. While he’s not bringing back any stars with his tarnished reputation, if Nets general manager Sean Marks can get anything for him, it would be a huge trade-up, even if it costs some future picks to do so.

The Nets are one of the biggest messes in the NBA right now, but here’s the thing. They have Kevin Durant. And any team with KD has a shot to make the playoffs and win some games once it’s there.

The biggest of the Nets' problems getting in the way of this postseason run in the 2022-23 NBA season is Irving. And until the franchise deals with that albatross around its neck, any other issue they try and tackle is moot.