The Los Angeles Lakers are all-in on Kyrie Irving this offseason and if the team is unable to trade Russell Westbrook for him then they probably won’t contend for the NBA Championship next season. Unfortunately, that is the situation the Lakers have put themselves in.
Things are in a holding pattern right now as the Lakers and Nets not only work out the logistics of the trade, but the Nets also try and trade Kevin Durant. Trading Durant is the team’s priority and they are not going to trade Irving before they know they have a Durant deal.
With how the money is playing out and the desires of both teams, there are multiple ways the Lakers’ trade for Kyrie Irving could play out. Thus, we have to decide which is the best for the purple and gold.
Ranking 3 possible Kyrie Irving trades for the Los Angeles Lakers:
3. Including San Antonio
The San Antonio Spurs are a team that has been rumored to help facilitate trade between the Lakers and the Nets with the Spurs taking on Westbrook’s salary for a fee. This allows Brooklyn to save a lot of money against the cap, which matters to them being a tax-spending team.
In fact, some reports indicate that a trade with Westbrook going to the Spurs is the closest thing to happening. Unfortunately for Lakers fans, that is probably the worst-case scenario.
There are a few different directions that a trade involving the Spurs could go but based on recent reports, it will likely have to involve the Spurs getting a first-round pick. Thus, it would probably look something like this:
The Nets free up a ton of cap space both this season and in the future as Richardson and Poeltl are on expiring contracts. The Lakers get Kyrie and get Westbrook off the books at the price of two first-round picks. The Spurs take on $25 million more in salary and could probably save around $5-6 million by instantly buying out Westbrook.
This is the foundation of the trade as there could be more moving parts but this is still the worst version of the trade for the Lakers as it sees the team give up two first-round picks just for Kyrie in return.
2. Los Angeles Lakers send two picks, but get Joe Harris in return
The Los Angeles Lakers do not want to send two draft picks to get rid of Russell Westbrook but at the end of the day, the team might have to in order to get a deal done. Granted, the team is going to do its best to play the game of chicken and stare down the Nets as long as possible to get Kyrie for as cheap as possible.
That does not always pan out as planned and there is a chance that the team has to trade two picks. That being said, the Lakers can probably get the second pick to merely be a swap and can absolutely get another player added to the package to entice LA.
The Nets do not want to take on more money because they are a tax-paying team and this trade would result in the Nets freeing up $8 million. Because the Lakers are taking on Harris’s contract in this trade, they can likely convince the Nets to simply execute a swap for that 2028 pick.
LA might not want to make this kind of trade because the franchise pinches pennies at times but at the end of the day, getting Westbrook off the roster for Kyrie AND Joe Harris is worth a pick and a pick swap.
Harris has his concerns, sure, but he is a perfect role player to put on this team. The Lakers currently do not have any real shooters on the roster and Harris is the best off-ball three-point shooter in the league.
The only thing that can topple this trade package is one where LA takes on significantly more money for the price of just one draft pick.
1. Los Angeles Lakers only send one pick, get Joe Harris and Seth Curry in return
This is perhaps the least likely of the three trade packages listed in this article. That being said, this is the end goal that the Los Angeles Lakers should be working towards and it is not completely out of the realm of possibility that it happens.
The Nets do not have much leverage with Irving, especially if the team trades Durant and definitely does not want him to return. If Rob Pelinka plays the game the right way, he could wait it out until Brooklyn has no choice but to take this offer. If there were other teams interested it would be different. But there isn’t.
This, right here, should be the Lakers’ dream package:
The Lakers still have to send a first-round pick. There is no chance that this trade is getting done without the Lakers sending a pick. Maybe in a perfect world, the Lakers can get top-3 protections on the pick, but that is still very unlikely.
LA themselves might not even love this package as it has the team taking on $11.7 million more in salary this season. That is when Jeanie Buss and co. need to look themselves in the mirror and realize that they run the second most valuable franchise in the NBA.
Los Angeles would get off Westbrook, would replace him with Kyrie and would add two lethal shooters to the rotation. Meanwhile, Brooklyn would get a pick for someone who does not have much value in trades in Kyrie as well as $11.7 million in saved money (plus whatever Westbrook buys out for).
The Kevin Durant trade the Lakers should wish happens
There is one Kevin Durant trade that the Los Angeles Lakers should be wishing for. After it happens, Kyrie Irving will be a Laker.
There still is value here for the Nets. It might not be the best package as far as they are concerned, but it definitely is reasonable and realistic.