Without Kyrie Irving, the Nets have been able to record 20-8 so far this season, and they are still one of the best performers in the league. While Kyrie Irving's return to the game will certainly make the Nets a better team, both Durant and Harden need to be mentally prepared to storm the championship without Irving.
At least for now, Irving's position has not changed, which means that the problem for the Nets is to continue to attack the championship with the current lineup, or to try to promote the trade involving Irving before the trade deadline and build a lineup with better depth.
So what kind of deals are the Nets likely to promote at the moment? The advice given by the US media Brett Siegel is to promote the Domantas Sabonis deal with the Pacers:
Nets get: Domintus Sabonis
Pacers get: Joe Harris, Nicholas Clarkston, Cam Thomas
Truth be told, it's hard to believe that the Pacers would be willing to push for a deal involving Sabonis Jr. without a draft pick return, after all, Sabonis Jr. is one of the best players in this Pacers squad and they definitely need to push for a deal involving Sabonis Jr. with a lot of future assets.
In this deal, Joe Harris is indeed a good shooter, and Clarkston and Cam Thomas are also players with good talent prospects, but again, the Pacers don't seem to need to push for such a deal with the Nets, especially if Sabonis Jr. may well attract the interest of other teams that can send better chips.
For the Nets, getting Sabonis Jr. also means that the team can build a new big three lineup of Durant, Harden and Sabonis Jr., of course, if Irving is willing to come back, this Nets will also be a team with a big four lineup. But if the Nets do want to push for a deal involving Sabonis Jr., management sacrificing some future draft picks while sending out the three players mentioned above could be a more realistic scenario for the deal.