The Los Angeles Lakers might be just days away from trading for all-star point guard Kyrie Irving. This would be a huge turn of events for the Lakers, who were seemingly preparing to head into the 2022-23 season with Russell Westbrook on the roster.
Irving in Los Angeles would result in Westbrook packing his bags. In fact, if the Lakers were to trade for Irving from the Brooklyn Nets they would have to loop in a third team, as the Nets would probably rather let Irving walk than bring in Westbrook only to drive Kevin Durant away.
Things are reportedly getting acrimonious between Irving and the Nets and his departure from Brooklyn may just be a matter of time. Rob Pelinka and the front office has to get hard at work as they need to work up a trade package that makes sense for everyone involved.
A perfect Kyrie Irving trade might be with the Indiana Pacers.
The Lakers could bank on the Pacers wanting to free up cap space to loop them in as the third team in a potential Irving trade. With the team taking another guard in Bennedict Mathurin in the first round, the Pacers might be pushing even harder to trade Malcolm Brogdon and Buddy Hield to free up salary-cap space.
That creates this potential trade package for the Lakers, Nets and Pacers:
There are a lot of moving parts in this trade and fans of each of these teams probably have something to say about this potential package. For that reason, in the following pages, we will explain why the Los Angeles Lakers should be willing to do this deal and why the other teams should be willing as well.