The Brooklyn Nets and Kyrie Irving have reached an impasse on their contract negotiations, but thanks to Kevin Durant, both sides have every motivation to work something out.

According to NBA insider Marc Stein via Substack, the Nets are still largely expected to keep Irving with a new deal. After all, he and KD went together in Brooklyn to win a championship and the team doesn't want to “alienate” Durant with the hold Irving situation.

The expectation persists leaguewide that the Nets will hash out some sort of new deal with Irving — ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski floated the prospect of a two-year, $84 million pact Wednesday — most crucially to ensure that they don’t alienate Durant.

For what it's worth, this corroborates earlier reports about the Nets and Kyrie Irving “still working to find a happy medium in Brooklyn rather than an exit strategy out of it.”

Irving did say after their season ended that he wants to stay with the Nets and win a championship alongside his good friend in Kevin Durant, and clearly, that remains the case. The only issue now is how much and for how long Brooklyn is willing to commit to the All-Star playmaker after his COVID-19 vaccine stance forced him to miss a huge chunk of the past season.

But with rumors regarding the issue taking a toll on KD, the Nets and Irving better find a way to resolve their contract problems soon and move onto bigger things at hand, including trying to improve the roster for a legitimate title run.