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Kyrie: 'It's glaring' Nets need to add more pieces

Nathaniel S. Butler / National Basketball Association / Getty

Kyrie Irving wants more help.

Following the Nets' 117-106 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, Brooklyn's ninth defeat in its last 11 games, Irving admitted his team needs to add more firepower in order to compete with the league's top dogs.

"I mean, it's transparent. It's out there. It's glaring, in terms of the pieces that we need in order to be at that next level," Irving said postgame, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps. "I'm going to continue to reiterate it. We're going to do the best with the guys that we have in our locker room now, and we'll worry about all the other stuff, in terms of moving pieces and everything else, as an organization down the line in the summer."

Irving finished with 14 points on 6-of-21 shooting, along with a game-worst minus-29 rating Wednesday. This marked the floor general's third contest back in the Nets' lineup after missing 26 games with a shoulder injury.

The 27-year-old bemoaned his club's bad luck on the injury front this season and maintains the young players have done an admirable job filling in.

"It's just something that we signed up for. We knew what we were coming into at the beginning of this season," Irving continued. "Guys were going down left and right. (Garrett Temple) is out, (DeAndre Jordan) just got hurt tonight, Wilson (Chandler) is coming back. We've got complementary young guys, as well, that have done a great job the last three years. Collectively, I feel like we have great pieces, but it's pretty glaring we need one more piece or two more pieces."

Durant, who teamed up with Irving in Brooklyn during free agency this past offseason, has already been ruled out for the year with a torn Achilles tendon suffered in last season's Finals. Once he returns and presumably regains his old form, the club's window to compete for a championship should open with two superstars leading the charge.

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