Latest Kevin Durant report is horrible for the Lakers’ Kyrie Irving pursuit

The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to pull off a trade that would bring Kyrie Irving to Los Angeles and would get Russell Westbrook off the books. The Brooklyn Nets went into full sellers mode after Kevin Durant requested a trade, which obviously included Irving.

That being said, Irving reportedly wants to stay in Brooklyn for the final year of his contract. That does not matter if Brooklyn trades Durant and wants a fresh start by getting assets for Irving on the open market.

However, if Durant stays in Brooklyn then Kyrie is likely not going anywhere. This takes Kyrie off the table for the Lakers and would make the team scramble for other options to get Westbrook off the roster. Unfortunately for LA, this situation seems more plausible after the latest Kevin Durant report.

Steve Bulpitt of Heavy.com reports that Durant is scheduled to meet with Nets owner Joe Tsai about his trade request as the Nets are currently at a stalemate in the trade process.

This Kevin Durant report is horrible for the Los Angeles Lakers.

This meeting does not guarantee that KD will stay in Brooklyn but it certainly increases the chances. There is obviously something in the organization that KD is not a fan of to the point that he is willing to demand a trade with four years left on his deal after Irving opted back into his contract.

Whatever those issues are could be ironed out. If the Nets are not getting the right return for Durant they are going to be much more motivated to keep him around and keep him happy instead of trading him for pennies on the dollar.

Plus, Durant does not seem like the kind of player that will actively sit out for the season because he is unhappy. Durant has said time and time again how much he simply loves to hoop, so that appears to be out of the equation.

Perhaps the thing that Durant wants to be fixed is Irving himself, which would seemingly be optimistic for the Lakers. That would put the Nets in a serious bind, though, as LA is the only team that is really interested in Kyrie and there is no way that Durant wants to play with Westbrook again.

The Lakers would have to try and loop in a third team that could send assets to the Nets and take on Westbrook’s contract. Maybe that could be something along the lines of Westbrook going to Indiana with Buddy Hield and Myles Turner going to Brooklyn, but that is a stretch.

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Regardless, Lakers fans have to hope that this meeting between Durant and Tsai blows up and KD walks out of it even unhappier than he was before. If not, the team’s chances of getting Kyrie Irving, and thus winning the NBA Championship, will go significantly go down.