The Los Angeles Lakers are mourning their team’s failure in trading for Kyrie Irving. Irving was widely expected to be traded to the Lakers but was packaged to the Dallas Mavericks instead.
The Mavs put together a package consisting of players that can help the Nets now, along with one first-round pick and a couple of seconds. People were quick to criticize the Lakers for not pulling the trigger, but the Nets had a massive ask when it came to negotiating details with the Lakers specifically.
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The Athletic is reporting the Nets asked LA to not only give them their 2 future first-round picks along with Russell Westbrook but also the only good young talent on the Lakers roster is Austin Reaves and Max Christie.
Shams Charania further elaborated on the negotiations between LA and Brooklyn after the Mavericks deal was final.
The Lakers offered the Nets a package of Westbrook and two first-round picks in 2027 and 2029 for Irving in the last two days, sources with knowledge of the discussions said — to which the Nets informed the Lakers that in order to make an offer to get in the Irving sweepstakes they would require all of their young players such as Austin Reaves and Max Christie and pick swaps in addition to Westbrook and the two first-round picks. (h/t The Athletic)
Charania also revealed that the Lakers’ pursuit of Kyrie began 8 months ago in June when Irving initially threatened to leave the Nets. Brooklyn chose not to deal him to LA in the summer. They also listened to offers from the Phoenix Suns that included Chris Paul and Jae Crowder but decided the Mavs had the best offer on the table.
Did The Lakers Make A Mistake Or Dodge A Bullet?
In all fairness, it doesn’t look like Joe Tsai was going to let the Lakers get Kyrie Irving without paying a significant premium, which is why they asked for every single valuable young player that the team had. If you look at this season in a vacuum, the Lakers could have definitely given up all of that and still been competitive, giving LeBron James a legitimate shot at winning another title.
The price would’ve come back to bite them in the summer more than anything else but it might have been worth it for this season. A LeBron-AD-Kyrie big 3 might have been unstoppable, but we won’t know what could have been the result of this with Irving joining the Mavericks instead to partner up with MVP candidate Luka Doncic.
Source: fadeawayworld
