What Kevin Durant's James Harden statement means for Kyrie Irving

Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant had some very interesting comments after James Harden debut. What does it mean for Kyrie Irving?

The point guard position in the NBA has evolved over the last 20 years. Teams very rarely have a guard who simply brings up the ball and initiates the offense but might take the fewest shots of any player in the starting lineup. Now players like Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Damian Lillard have become point guards who also lead their team in scoring and dominate the ball when they are on the floor. James Harden is that type of ball-dominant guard, but so is Kyrie Irving.

On the daily Locked On Nets podcast, hosts Adam Armbrecht and Doug Norrie break down James Harden's debut with the Nets and how Kevin Durant's comments after the game leave Kyrie Irving in an odd position:

Doug Norrie: In the postgame questions for KD, they were asking him just about Harden and his game and they said, ‘Were you impressed by the facilitation, the assists, and the triple-double?' KD said, ‘Yeah, I mean, listen, I look at a James Harden in the point guard role. That's his natural position. That's his natural role on the court. So, no, I wasn't surprised at all.'

Am I stirring the pot if I say that feels like a mild jab in the direction of Kyrie? Or at least it's a little reminder that the new guy that we brought in, that maybe is lined up at the 2-guard a lot of times, he can also do what you're supposed to be doing here as well. So you may want to feel free to hustle up and get your butt back on the court.

Adam Armbrecht: Yeah, I felt like those words were probably chosen specifically. Now, Harden is often labeled a shooting guard but he's really been the point guard. I know he's played with other point guards like Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook over the last couple of years. Make no mistake, James Harden was the point guard on that team. It's always weird to me that they continued to label him shooting guard; maybe the team just chose to do it. That was far from the position he was playing. That aside, Kevin Durant's choice of words there were very careful. I think also with the idea that this came out looking to be so fluid right from the jump, even if there were a few mistakes here and there, the fact that it looked so it's sort of deadly right away, and the energy level was so high around that I think it might have been a quick reminder that… just so everyone's clear about what the pecking order here is right now.