Kyrie Irving has clamored to keep him out of market speculation and that he’s in no hurry to decide his future, but sitting on the sidelines for Los Angeles Lakers games certainly doesn’t help to go unnoticed. LeBron James has clearly made it clear that he wants further reinforcements for the near future and Irving is one of the best free agents available on the market, as well as a player with whom James has already won in the past. Getting him to the Lakers, however, requires some gymnastics in terms of the salary cap: first of all, Irving should get less than the maximum salary, but above all the Lakers would like to get him through the sign-and-trade mechanism (therefore he should sign with his last team, the Dallas Mavericks, to then be immediately traded to the yellow-purples) in order not to have to give up two important pieces of the team that reached the conference final such as Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura.
Here, however, the first hitch arises: the Mavericks should collaborate for the success of the exchange but have no intention of helping the Lakers complete this sign-and-trade, given that their intention is to confirm Irving alongside Luka Doncic and build around them. But above all – according to what journalist Marc Stein wrote in his newsletter – they do not intend to receive D’Angelo Russell back from Los Angeles, a player who, also being out of contract, could easily be included in the exchange to match the contracts. I mean, to get Irving to L.A. it will take some somersaults (probably giving up Hachimura), but Dallas certainly won’t help the Lakers reunite Kyrie with LeBron James.