Brooklyn Nets All Star point guard Kyrie Irving raised some eyebrows earlier this week when he spoke candidly about the team's "glaring" issues and their need to add one or two more pieces to compliment him and Kevin Durant. During Thursday night's NBA on TNT broadcast, Charles Barkley offered his take on the subject and explained why he feels Irving has no right to criticize the Nets' roster.
Says Barkley:
"If I'm the coach... I'm gonna pull him aside and say, 'Yo, man. That ain't your job to criticize our team.' We said all [last] year... that [Brooklyn] plays hard every night, they really, really compete."
"We bring in Kyrie, we made the playoffs without you. And for you to come in here and play half a season and then say, 'Well we're just not that good, we're missing some big pieces.' Na, dude. We made the playoffs without you last year. We're bringing in an All-Star player, we should be a Top 4 seed, easily."
Nearly halfway through the season, Brooklyn is sitting at 18-22, which is slightly behind their pace a season ago, but still good enough to be a Top 8 team in the Eastern Conference. As is stands, the Nets are four games ahead of the Chicago Bulls for the final playoff spot in the East.
If the organization was to take Kyrie's advice and attempt to add one or two more pieces this off-season, they'd likely need to move some of their core role players considering they already have $140 million tied up in 2020-21 salary. Up next for Kyrie and co. are a pair of home games against some of the Eastern Conference elite, including a matchup against the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night and another date with the Sixers on Monday.