Getty Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks.
The narrative of Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving joining the Los Angeles Lakers and reuniting with LeBron James has been fleshed out quite a bit, as the final months of the star guard’s contract pass by. If you don’t believe me, just log onto Twitter, type “Kyrie” into your search bar, and watch as “Kyrie lakers” pops up as an autofill option.
Despite the strong outcry from Lakers/LeBron fans, there hasn’t been much indication from Irving that a move to L.A. is in his future. But if it was, it would have to be via trade. The Lakers don’t have the cap space to outright sign him, so they’d have to get the Mavs to agree to a sign-and-trade.
In an April 14 article for “Bleacher Report,” Zach Buckley outlined the following move, which would fulfil the dreams of many, sending Kyrie to the Lakers:
Lakers receive: Kyrie Irving
Mavericks receive: D’Angelo Russell, Max Christie and 2029 first-round pick
Buckley then outlined why the move would be intriguing for the Mavs, citing that a potentially less-lucrative contract for Russell could allow for greater pieces to be brought in and boost the team’s supporting cast.
“Getting the Mavs to bite would be the tricky part, but given how things disintegrated down the stretch in Dallas, maybe they’d prefer the incoming package over Irving,” he wrote. “Both he and Russell are headed to free agency, but the latter—despite being four years younger—could be exponentially cheaper to re-sign. The Mavericks desperately need to upgrade things around Luka Dončić, and that process could be a lot easier with Russell making, say, $20 million to $25 million (plus the pick and Max Christie to deal or develop) than with Irving collecting north of $50 million in average annual value on a max deal.”
Mavericks’ Nico Harrison ‘Optimistic’ that Kyrie Irving Will Stay
Again, the 31-year-old star hasn’t expressed much interest in skipping town, despite Dallas’ disaster finish to the season.
In fact, Mavs general manager Nico Harrison told the media that he remains “optimistic” that Irving will ink a deal to stay in Dallas this summer.
“I think the things he said along the way about how he feels here, how he feels appreciated, how he feels accepted, and allowed to be himself. I think those are the things he’s said kind of consistently, and that gives me the optimism that he wants to be here,” Harrison said via the Dallas Mavericks official YouTube channel.
Mavericks Fined $750,000 by NBA After Tanking vs. Bulls
Dallas’ pockets will be a little bit lighter heading into free agency this summer. The NBA announced Friday, that they’d be fining the organization $750,000 for sitting key players in their April 7 must-win matchup with the Chicago Bulls.
“The NBA announced today that the Dallas Mavericks organization has been fined $750,000 for conduct detrimental to the league in an elimination game against the Chicago Bulls on April 7,” the league said in a statement. “The Mavericks violated the league’s player resting policy and demonstrated through actions and public statements the organization’s desire to lose the game in order to improve the chances of keeping its first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. The league did not find that the players who participated in the game were not playing to win.”
The following was released by the NBA.
