Wild Proposed 3-Team Trade Gives Lakers a $136 Million Superstar

The Los Angeles Lakers have been advised to trade for at least one superstar. Kyrie Irving has been commonly mentioned as a future Laker. The Brooklyn Nets haven’t reached an agreement with Irving and his situation is a bit complicated.

Irving is entering free agency in the offseason. He may opt of the final year of his big deal and join whichever team fits his criteria. Of course, the Lakers won’t be able to do this on their own. They need some help from a third party.

Kevin O’Connor from The Ringer has a suggestion for the Lakers. This solution would help the Lakers get Irving. It’s also a solution for the Russell Westbrook drama. Russ is going to the Charlotte Hornets and Gordon Hayward is joining the Nets.

“But the idea that I have involving that is Kyrie to the Lakers, Westbrook to the Hornets and then [Terry] Rozier and Hayward to the Nets,” O’Connor explained during a June 9 episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “Add picks, fluff it up however you want. That’s like the foundation of the deal. What do you think about that for all three of those teams? Because that connects the Marc Stein rumor right with Hornets and Lakers [trade for] Westbrook.”

Lakers to trade for a superstar in the offseason

Brian Windhorst from ESPN discussed the situation. According to him, the Nets are concerned about Irving’s idea to join the Lakers.

“There is a concern in Brooklyn that Kyrie, because he’s not a conventional thinker, Kyrie could be inventive enough to leave the money on the table to go play with the Lakers and reunite with LeBron, but he would really have to rattle the saber there,” Windhorst detailed on a June 23 episode of “Get Up.”

LeBron James added fuel to the fire. Now we know that the four-time NBA champion has been in contact with Kyrie Irving.

“There are credible rumblings in circulation that Irving, for starters, has indeed had some recent contact with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, his former Cleveland teammate, to presumably discuss a potential reunion in Hollywood,” Stein wrote on June 22. “I’m told it would be a stretch, though, to suggest that the Lakers are currently pursuing Irving. They do not possess the trade assets to realistically engage Brooklyn in Irving trade talks even if he exercises his player option for next season.

“Also: The Lakers, as things stand, couldn’t offer Irving more than the midlevel exception for tax-paying teams for next season if Irving bypasses his player option to opt for free agency. That MLE, remember, tops out at a projected $6.39 million. The idea of Irving declining his player option and essentially playing for $30 million less in L.A., even after the $15-plus million he willingly sacrificed last season by refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and missing the first 35 games of the season, just doesn’t seem plausible.”