Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is aiming to shut down the notion that he would like to play for the Lakers, per Marc Stein of The Stein Line.
In fact, Irving prefers to return to the Mavs in free agency this offseason, a source told Stein.
“He wants to stay,” the source said.
Stein also wrote that two sources close to the process say “Irving has consistently expressed a desire to remain a Maverick and actually wants to shut down the notion that he’s angling to get to L.A.”
All of this, of course, stems from the report that Irving wants the Mavs to pursue a trade for Lakers star LeBron James, Irving’s teammate on the 2016 champion Cavaliers.
Dallas actually landing James is another matter entirely. Even if James desired to leave the Lakers, it would be almost impossible from a salary-cap standpoint for the Mavs to put together a roster of James, Irving and Luka Doncic.
That’s especially the case with the new salary structure kicking in.
“It’s basically a hard cap,” a league source told Stein.
LeBron? To Mavs? There just appears to be too much working against the idea. But from the sounds of things, Irving will almost certainly be back.
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