Lakers Only Known Team Planning Pursuit Of Kyrie Irving Trade With Nets

The Lakers are the only known team planning to pursue a trade for Nets star Kyrie Irving, with less four days to go until the start of the free agency negotiating period, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

While the Lakers may pursue, it takes two to tango, and right now the Nets aren’t interested in any of the Lakers’ proposed packages, Wojnarowski added. In order to trade Irving to LA, the Nets would want star forward Anthony Davis in return, as we relayed here.

Irving has requested and received permission to seek a sign-and-trade from the Nets as contract talks between the sides are at a standstill. It is believed the Lakers, Heat, Mavericks, 76ers, Clippers and Knicks are on Irving’s list of preferred destinations.

But Irving is viewed around the league as being fairly unpredictable, causing hesitation from rival teams to surrender huge assets that the Nets are likely seeking. Aside from LeBron James and Davis, the Lakers likely don’t have much that would entice the Nets to unload Irving.

As of last week, actually, the Nets were confident that Irving, Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons will all be in training camp once the Irving drama comes to an end. Now, things seem considerably less certain.

Per Albert De Roa of HoopsHype, the belief around the NBA is that Irving will not return to Brooklyn and that the Irving-Kevin Durant era is over.

None of the teams on Irving’s reported list have the cap space to sign Irving outright, meaning a sign-and-trade would be Irving’s only path to any of them, per Wojnarowski. And aside from perhaps the Lakers, none of the teams view acquiring Irving as a “priority,” Wojnarowski added. But again, the Lakers would have a tougher time than anyone making it happen.

If the Nets are to unload Irving, they will want a star and young players in return. If Irving demands a trade (which he has not done), the Nets can trade him wherever they wish. He would have to sign a deal to get traded — meaning whoever gets him would have him for the next several seasons.

Either way, it seems as if the Nets too are ready to see what they can get in return for Irving — and likely Durant as well. It’s been reported that Durant has lost faith in the front office during this whole fiasco.

“The Nets, as the Daily News reported in late May, have been unwilling to give Irving a long-term contract extension with significant financial guarantees,” Winfield wrote. “They do not believe Irving is committed to doing what it takes to be on the floor every game for his teammates.”

This is all a far cry from the end of the season, when Irving told reporters he has no plans to go anywhere. On the other hand, Nets GM Sean Marks was a little more noncommittal when it came to Irving’s future with the franchise.

“It’d be unfair for me to comment on how it looks with us and Kyrie, because to be quite frank he has some decisions to make on his own. So he has to look at what he’s going to do with his player option,” Marks said in May, via the New York Post’s Brian Lewis. “We’re looking for guys that want to come in here and be part of something bigger than themselves, play selfless, play team basketball, and be available.” 

Marks didn’t mention Irving by name, but said that it is all about being a team player.

“You want people here to be part of something bigger than themselves,” Marks said. “It’s a team sports team game. It’s not individuals. We want people to be here for the right reasons, and buy into their roles, find their roles, high-character guys.

“We want to avoid the drama, we want to avoid the distractions. These last couple years here, whether it was expectation set on the team or some of the outside circumstances that were going on in the world, they affected our guys — both individually and as a group — really poorly, unfortunately.”

Irving, 30, averaged 27.4 points, 5.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 29 games this past season. He missed multiple games because of the New York City vaccine mandate, which was eventually lifted in time for the postseason.

Still, Irving and the Nets were swept from the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs by the Celtics.