Getty Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets looks on against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second quarter of the game at the Wells Fargo Center
Ever since the social media behavior of Kyrie Irving put he and the Brooklyn Nets into a bit of hot water, trade rumors for the point guards have kicked up. After sharing a link to a video with antisemitic themes, Nets owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai considered waiving their star point guard. However, they didn’t waive Irving. He made his return from his team-issued suspension on Sunday, November 20.
Instead of waiving Irving, they are said to be interested in trading the All-Star point guard. On Tuesday, November 22 Hoops Wire confirmed that the Nets are looking to trade the star.
“Sources have told Hoops Wire the same — that the Nets would like to move Irving, but his trade value isn’t exactly at an all-time high right now. Quite the opposite.”
Trading Kyrie Irving May Not Be Easy
While the Nets may be looking to trade Kyrie Irving, it may not be easy. Despite being on an expiring contract, Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report told the Dan Patrick Show that it may not be easy for Brooklyn to find a trade partner for Kyrie.
“I can’t sit here and lie to you and say there’s much value in trading for Kyrie,” Haynes said during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show. “I’m on the phone with a lot of teams. His name is not really coming up, even for the Los Angeles Lakers, who he was tied to for much of the offseason. That’s just not something I’m hearing right now.”
The Lakers remain the only team that have shown interest in Irving. LeBron James has seemingly been trying to pave the way for Irving to join the Lakers publicly on a number of occasions.
Lakers Out on Kyrie Irving
Earlier this month, Howard Beck disputed the idea that the Lakers would deal for Kyrie Irving and insisted the team has their eyes set on a specific player that is not Kyrie Irving.
“I will add one thing without going into all the detail, but I was canvassing a bunch of front office folks last week when I was workshopping my idea of ‘Can the Nets tear down now? Should they just tear down now? What could they reasonably get for Kevin Durant? Could they get anything for Kyrie Irving? Could they get anything at all for Ben Simmons?'” said Beck. “And in those discussions, when I brought up the Lakers, the pushback I was getting was they’re waiting for a specific player. That they’re not doing the Pacer deal, that they won’t do the Kyrie deal now that we for sure thought they would do a couple months ago, is an indication that the Lakers are waiting for a bigger piece to come loose that they think they can trade Westbrook and the two future firsts for.”
Was LeBron James Trying to Set Up a Kyrie Irving Trade
After the recent drama with Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn, LeBron James added comments to publicly back Irving and speak out about the Nets’ suspension of their All-Star point guard. NBA Insider Zach Lowe wondered if there was a connection and suggested LeBron could be looking to send a message to Lakers management to make a move to reunite Irving and James together again in Hollywood.
“Look, I don’t know why LeBron said what he said about Kyrie yesterday,” Lowe said. “About how it’s time to bring him back in the league.
“Maybe he just said it because he believes and there’s nothing else to it. I can tell you around the league and even within the Lakers, some corners of it, those comments were read as LeBron opening the door to…at least opening the door to, ‘Hey, if you all are comfortable with it and all the blowback it would be, and the Nets are willing to just get out of the business now of Kyrie Irving so we can get him for much cheaper, not both picks, maybe one pick.'” Lowe said.