NBA insider is only giving the Los Angeles Lakers a 10-15 percent chance of getting Kyrie Irving this summer.
Jovan Buha, who covers the Lakers for The Athletic, believes “there are so many factors that have to go in the Lakers’ favor for them to land Irving.”
“This is a difficult question to answer, but if I had to peg a percentage, I’d go low — somewhere in the 10 to 15 percent range,” Buah wrote.
The Dallas Mavericks would need to be willing to help facilitate a sign-and-trade in many scenarios for the Lakers to be in a position to acquire Irving, but they are going to be unwilling to do so.
“It’s certainly possible, but there are so many factors that have to go in the Lakers’ favor for them to land Irving. Ideally, they acquire him via sign-and-trade with Dallas. But that would require the Mavericks to play ball — and The Athletic’s Tim Cato reported Dallas is unlikely to do so,’ Buha wrote. “That also would hard-cap the Lakers, forcing them to make difficult decisions and likely resulting in them losing several key players from last season’s team (Schröder, Lonnie Walker IV and possibly Hachimura).
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
“More realistically, Irving would have to take a substantial discount to sign with the Lakers in free agency, something he’s shown no willingness to do yet. To even make that a possibility, Los Angeles must willingly gut its depth to create cap space. In that scenario, the Lakers’ roster would probably be composed of James, Davis, Irving, Austin Reaves, a taxpayer mid-level exception signing and a bunch of minimum contracts.”
Irving becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer. He’s been heavily linked to the Lakers since he was teammates with LeBron James on the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014-15 to 2015-17. LeBron and Kyrie won the 2016 championship together over the Golden State Warriors in seven games.
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
James wants to reunite with Irving in Los Angeles. However, it may just be a “pipe dream.”
“Irving to Los Angeles remains a theoretical possibility until he signs a multiyear deal with Dallas or another team. (Even then, rumors of Irving to the Lakers could pop back up around the 2024 trade deadline if that partnership doesn’t work out.) But as I reported back in mid-March, all indications from the Lakers are that Irving to Los Angeles is nothing more than a pipe dream,” Buha wrote.
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