Brooklyn Nets star point guard Kyrie Irving is expected to undergo a procedure on his right shoulder and miss an extended period of time, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. ESPN's Malika Andrews and Adrian Wojnarowski report that Irving will be making an official decision in the next few days.
Irving missed 26 games earlier this season with this same shoulder injury. The guard evaluated all options during his lengthy recovery but decided to return to the court on Jan. 12, even putting up 54 points against the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 31.
However, Irving suffered a knee injury the very next night against the Washington Wizards, which knocked him out of commission again. Now he has since aggravated that shoulder injury and is likely going to be either out for the season or he'll miss most of the rest of the campaign.
In 20 games this season, Irving is averaging 27.4 points, 6.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds in 32.9 minutes per game. He's shooting 47.8% overall, 39.4% on 3-pointers and 92.2% from the free-throw line.
The Nets are 25-28 on the season, which is good for seventh place in the Western Conference. Brooklyn is two games clear of the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic and five games ahead of the ninth-seeded Washington Wizards.
While potentially losing Kyrie Irving for the year is a tough blow, the Nets are 17-16 without their star in the lineup and 8-12 with him, so they can at least survive and make the playoffs. Brooklyn is obviously no contender, but that was never expected to be the case until Kevin Durant returned in 2020-21.
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