Irving to miss fourth game as video surfaces
NEW YORK — Kyrie Irving was scheduled to miss his fourth straight game for “personal reasons” when the Nets face the Nuggets on Tuesday night at Barclays Center, and reserve guard Tyler Johnson (health and safety protocols) is expected to remain in quarantine tonight and for a game against the Knicks on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
According to an ESPN report, Irving might also miss the Knicks game and a home game Saturday against the Magic if the NBA places him in quarantine under the league’s health and safety protocols after video surfaced of a maskless Irving attending a large family birthday party for his sister Asia and for his father.
An NBA source confirmed to Newsday that the league is investigating the situation.
What that means for the Nets (5-6) is a shortage of depth at the point guard position behind Caris LeVert, who has moved from sixth man to assume the starting role in place of Irving. Earlier in the season, starting shooting guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who played extensively as the starting pointing guard in the past, was lost for the season after undergoing right knee surgery.
As a result, Landry Shamet, whose role in his three NBA seasons has been to provide three-point shooting off the bench, has been pressed into backup point guard duty behind LeVert primarily because first-year coach Steve Nash wanted his shooting on the floor ahead of reserves Bruce Brown and Chris Chiozza, who don’t pose the same offensive threat.
Shamet has been in a terrible shooting slump this season, which compounds his struggle with added ballhandling duties. Shamet has career averages of 8.9 points, 39.4% three-point shooting and an effective field-goal percentage of 55.9%, but those numbers are down with the Nets to 4.7 points and career lows of 25.6% from three and 41.2% EFG.
“I know this isn’t me,” Shamet said following Monday’s practice. “It’s not who I am, and it’s not going to last forever. When [things] get tough, just bite down on the mouthpiece, put my hard hat on and go to work. That’s all you can do.”
Nash defended his use of Shamet at point guard by noting it was the position he played throughout his college career at Wichita State. His role only changed when he came to the NBA in his first two seasons with the 76ers and Clippers before the Nets acquired him in an offseason trade.
“If you watched me in college, there wasn’t a possession that went by where I wasn’t playmaking, initiating our offense, handling the ball, coming off ball screens,” Shamet said. “That was my role. I wasn’t the pin-down, off-the-screen shooter you see me as right now. So, I’m extremely comfortable doing that. That’s something I aspire to be in this league, a true combo guard, play either role.”