Lakers: Insider Proposes Three-Team Kyrie Irving-Russell Westbrook Trade
The NBA offseason is off and rolling. It's a time full of jersey swaps photos, outlandish trade rumors, and everyone's favorite, non-verbal communication from players via their social media accounts. On Monday, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported that contract extension talks between Kyrie Irving and the Nets are at a stand still and that the Lakers, Clippers, and Knicks could be interested in acquiring Kyrie if Brooklyn doesn't want to extend Kyrie.
The Kyrie-to-the-Lakers speculation was the lead story on some national shows. It was also a topic of conversation between NBA insiders Marc Stein and The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor on their Monday Spotify Live session.
O'Connor, citing a report from Stein from a couple of months ago that Charlotte has some level of interest in acquiring Russ, theorized that the Hornets could potentially be the third team involved in a Kyrie Irving-Russell Westbrook trade. There's some more work to be done to make the hypothetical trade work, but the general framework of the three-team trade was:
Lakers Receive
-Kyrie Irving
Nets Receive
-Terry Rozier
-Gordon Hayward
Hornets Receive
-Russell Westbrook
If the Lakers truly want to bring Kyrie into the fold, and dispense of Russell Westbrook in the process, it's an intriguing trade, but as has been reported time and time again, the Lakers would likely have to include one or both of their future first-round picks to entice any team to take on Westbrook's $47M expiring contract.
Charlotte does check some Oklahoma-City-type boxes for Russ. It's a small market team and has a fanbase that would probably more readily embrace him than the fans in Los Angeles. The Hornets can lean into the LaMelo Ball-Westbrook backcourt pairing, sell some more seats, and then let Russ walk as a free agent next summer.
The Nets piece of the hypothetical-unfinished trade idea is probably the most tenuous. Hayward would be a great compliment to Durant, but he's just never healthy. Rozier, a scoring guard who doesn't play defense is essentially Kyrie-Light (except he plays in most of the games).
Are those the two players, that are going to help push Durant and the Nets deep into the Eastern Conference playoffs?
It's an interesting trade idea that lands Kyrie Irving on the Lakers. It's not the first and it won't be the last before Kyrie's June 29th deadline to opt into the final year of his Net contract.
