Things were looking bleak for the Los Angeles Lakers but there is now a beacon of light in the form of Kyrie Irving. While Irving certainly has his flaws and is now 30 years old, having Irving on the team makes the Lakers a legitimate contender. The team cannot be said for Russell Westbrook.
Irving’s future with the Nets is up in the air and the Lakers were on the list of teams that Irving gave the Nets for a potential trade. Of those teams, the Lakers appear to be the only team that has a real interest, at least as far as Adrian Wojnarowski is concerned.
The one team that seemed to be the biggest competition for Irving is the New York Knicks. The Knicks are desperate for a superstar and they absolutely could have traded more straight-up for Irving than the Lakers could. The Lakers would have to loop in a third team to make an Irving trade possible.
That being said, the Lakers may not have to even compete with the Knicks, who are targeting another point guard. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Knicks are prepared to offer Jalen Brunson a four-year, $100 million contract. New York has made moves to free up cap space to potentially offer this large of a contract this offseason.
Knicks overpaying Jalen Brunson would open the door for Kyrie Irving to join the Los Angeles Lakers.
If the Knicks are out of the running then there might not be another team willing to trade for Kyrie Irving. Granted, the Nets could be stubborn and simply not give Kyrie what he wants but Irving does have a player option.
Irving could opt out and simply sign with the Lakers. Granted, he would have to sign the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception and would lose $30 million in the process. While that is absurd, Irving also sacrificed half of his salary last season in games he did not play. If the Lakers promise to pay him next summer he could just bite the bullet.
While Brunson had a good playoff run for the Dallas Mavericks, paying him $25 million a season is such a Knicks thing to do. There is not a world in which Brunson is worth that much money and it would become clear pretty quickly that the Knicks made a mistake.
Brunson is an undersized point guard who is a scoring threat but is not an elite scoring threat. His defense is average at the very best. Of the 90 players with 2,000 minutes played last season, Brunson ranked 43rd in Box Plus/Minus and 39th in PER.
He is a good player but is he a $25 million player? Probably. More power to the Knicks, though, as them spending on Brunson could lead to Kyrie Irving on the Los Angeles Lakers.