The best move the Los Angeles Lakers can make this offseason would be trading Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving. Los Angeles is the only team that is in the market for Kyrie if the Brooklyn Nets have to blow things up after Kevin Durant’s trade request.
However, a Durant trade has not yet happened weeks later and it has seemingly grown more and more unlikely that he will be moved. If Durant is not traded then Kyrie won’t be traded, which is a bad situation for the Lakers.
Unfortunately, that bad situation appears like it might be playing out. KD’s meeting with Nets owner Joe Tsai already makes a trade seem less likely and the latest news from insider Ian Begley is not great.
▪️ There is "a lot of pessimism" on a Kevin Durant deal getting done in the near future
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) August 4, 2022
▪️ Kyrie Irving is "in a good place and comfortable" with the Nets right now@IanBegley with the latest notes in Brooklyn: https://t.co/O7vOXAyoIq pic.twitter.com/eUgyqJOBdn
The one caveat with this report from Begley is that he says “in the near future”. Perhaps that means that a KD trade can still happen with time and the Lakers might just need to be patient. However, there is always the possibility that Durant and Irving decide to play one more year together in Brooklyn to try and win a title.
The Los Angeles Lakers have two routes to take if they can’t trade for Kyrie Irving in the summer.
The first route the Lakers can take is to find a plan B trade for Russell Westbrook. That could be with the Indiana Pacers or it could even be as a third party in a bigger trade, such as a Donovan Mitchell trade to the Charlotte Hornets.
The Lakers might not get as good of a return and they would likely have to send two draft picks but that is all the team really has if they want to get off Westbrook before the season starts.
Or the Lakers can go into the season with Westbrook with the plans of moving him at the deadline. The team will promote it differently with Darvin Ham continually praising Westbrook, causing pundits to question if Ham can fix Westbrook.
He won’t be able to and the reality of the situation would then be that a deadline deal is likely. At that point, Westbrook will only have half a season’s worth of salary to pay and a trade for a package like Buddy Hield and Myles Turner might be more likely.
Or, if the Lakers get really lucky the Nets could blow up during the season and force a Kyrie trade to happen for cheaper.
Russell Westbrook’s new agent is used to massively overpaid players
Russell Westbrook's agent Jeff Schwartz represents several of the league's most overpaid players, including Kristaps Porzingis.
That is all wishful thinking, though, as right now it does not look great for the purple and gold.