Heading into the 2021-22 NBA season, fantasies of a Brooklyn Nets vs Los Angeles Lakers NBA Finals were all too common.

There’s a cliche to be applied here. Something about knowing what we know now, then. To put it bluntly, that didn’t even come close to happening.

The Nets were swept by the eventual NBA Finalist Boston Celtics in the first round. Kyrie Irving’s prolonged absence from the team cost them chemistry. More significantly, it may have cost them James Harden.

They still had a better season than the Lakers. They didn’t even qualify for the play-in tournament. All told, the Lakers had one of the most disappointing NBA seasons in recent memory.

LATEST NBA NEWS AND TRADE RUMORS: Kyrie Irving’s Interest In New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers Dates Back To Mid-May

Both of these squads could justify making a major change this summer.

Here’s a deal that lands the polarizing Kyrie Irving on the Los Angeles Lakers.