Kyrie Irving Recruits LeBron James To The Dallas Mavericks
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Sources reported star point guard Kyrie Irving requested the Dallas Mavericks to trade for Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James.
A trade would reunite the former Cleveland Cavaliers stars, who won a championship in 2016 on one of the greatest complementary performances in Finals history. Irving was in trade rumors with the Lakers but has now requested James to come to Dallas.
James elevates every new team to championship contention once signing. Upon joining the Miami Heat, he won two championships in four appearances with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. It occurred once again with the Cavaliers, who went to four straight appearances from 2015 to 2018. Even in Los Angeles, he took a borderline playoff team to a 2020 championship and a conference finals this postseason.
However, the situation with Dallas is very unlikely to occur. First off, James signed with all these teams as a free agent, whereas this scenario requires a trade. The asking price is too high for a team that already gave up so much to acquire Irving.
In addition, having three players with max contracts is going to be costly, especially under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Irving, Luka Doncic, and even James, would need to take pay cuts for this to happen.
Another central issue is the play style. Irving, James and Doncic are all primary ball handlers, which would make it very hard to formulate offensively. We saw what happened once Russell Westbrook got to Los Angeles, and this would be a doubled-down version.
But even with all these factors in mind, a James-centered headline means we won’t stop talking about it for at least another week.
Jayden Armant is a contributor to Inside the Heat. He is a student at Howard University. He can be reached at jaydenshome14@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jaydenarmant.
