Kyrie Irving might end up taking a massive pay cut to join the Lakers
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers appear to be on the verge of acquiring Kyrie Irving this offseason. Just two weeks ago things looked very bleak with Russell Westbrook still on the books and now it looks like the team might be able to exchange Westbrook for a better player in Irving.
Kyrie’s relationship with the Nets has deteriorated to the point where the Nets are allowing him to talk to other teams about a potential sign-and-trade deal. According to some reports, Kyrie’s intentions are to join the Lakers and all the other teams that have been looped into the situation are just noise.
There is a hurdle to overcome in making a sign-and-trade for Irving. The Lakers would have to trade Westbrook, which the Nets obviously would not be too privy to. That is why a third team is fundamental to this trade. The Lakers have to find a team to dump Westbrook and picks to in a salary dump that can then send assets to the Nets.
It might be a big hurdle to overcome but there certainly are trade packages that make sense that the Lakers should be offering ASAP.
The Los Angeles Lakers might not even need to trade for Kyrie Irving, though.
According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, there is an increasing belief that Kyrie could actually opt out of his player option for the 2022-23 season and sign a Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception with the Lakers. That would be a pay cut of $30 million for the all-star guard.
Sources with knowledge of the situation have increasingly believed Kyrie Irving's willingness to opt out of Brooklyn, sign the $6M taxpayer midlevel with the Lakers, where Irving can re-sign long-term in 2023.
— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) June 27, 2022
More on @getcallin with @BigWos at 7:30ET: https://t.co/Qyn7Obfi2P
Most of the time this is just a leverage play by the player at hand. People in Kyrie’s camp are leaking this to the media to put pressure on the Nets. The idea is that it will force the Nets to make a trade they otherwise wouldn’t make because they don’t want to lose Kyrie for nothing. If they don’t believe that Kyrie will actually leave, the leverage is not there.
Almost every time this means nothing and it is all smoke but with Kyrie Irving, it has to be taken seriously. After all, Kyrie sacrificed half of his salary last season to stand by his beliefs regarding vaccination. If there was ever a player that would give up this much money to prove a point and go somewhere he wants to go, it is Irving.
Plus, the Lakers can promise him a big contract after the 2022-23 season and I am sure there is a movie that SpringHill Company (LeBron’s production company) will produce that Irving can “star” in to make up some of that money. Heck, they openly did it with Anthony Davis, who sacrificed his trade kicker when he was traded to LA to give the team more salary-cap space.
The only hang-up in this situation is Russell Westbrook. Would the Lakers be more willing to dump Westbrook and a pick after getting Irving? Does a trade with just Charlotte now make more sense? They would have to figure that out as there is not a world in which Irving and Westbrook should play on the same team.