The Nets All-Star may cost more than Los Angeles is willing to give up.
Brooklyn Nets All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving has in no uncertain terms put himself on the trade market, disrupting what had been shaping up to be a potentially incredibly boring trade deadline week. Your Los Angeles Lakers already seem to be in hot pursuit.
Marc Stein writes in his latest piece for Substack that the Lakers are Irving’s most-desired landing spot in a potential deal. The real question now: could both sides work out an agreement they’re amenable to?
Stein goes on to detail the kind of return that Brooklyn would desire to make a trade with LA. The Nets want to get both of LA’s two movable future first round draft picks, in 2027 and 2029, plus one of its intriguing young guards currently on a rookie scale deal, second-year shooting guard Austin Reaves or rookie swingman Max Christie.
Would LA surrender this haul?
Per Keith Smith of Spotrac (as cited in the Stein piece), Irving wants to be flipped at the trade deadline so that he can be re-signed into cap space by a team that possesses his Bird Rights, which would pay him an annual salary starting at $46 million next season. Stein wonders if a third team might be brought in to help facilitate a trade and give Brooklyn additional assets.
From a basketball perspective, Irving is an excellent fit, as both a playmaker and dynamic scorer, albeit one who can also help spread the floor for the Lakers’ star frontcourt of LeBron James and Anthony Davis when they drive inside. He’s incredibly risky, especially on long-term money.
