Kyrie Irving has decided to exercise his $36.9m option for the coming season and will remain under contract with the Brooklyn Nets.

Also, the Nets could still trade him and, in fact, teams may be more interested in a deal now that Irving is on an expiring contract.

The Nets returned this past season hoping to challenge for the title with their core of Irving, Durant and James Harden.

Irving wasn’t with the team for the majority of the season, Harden ended up getting traded to Philadelphia, the Nets needed to survive the play-in tournament just to make the playoffs, and Brooklyn wound up getting swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics.

Durant signed his own extension last summer, but had Irving not remained with the franchise next season, it certainly could have led to Durant pondering his own future in Brooklyn.

But with Irving presumably back, and with Ben Simmons, who didn’t play at all this season and was acquired by the Nets in the Harden trade set to team up alongside Irving and Durant this coming season, Brooklyn could quickly return to contender status.