Lakers News: Insider Reveals Why A LeBron James-To-Dallas Trade Is Unlikely
Early on Monday it was reported that Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving has been talking to LeBron James about a trade to Dallas.
While this may be true, basketball insiders believe that there is a very small chance that a trade for the superstar would actually go down.
According to The Athletic's Jovan Buha, a deal that would send James to team up with Irving and Luka Doncic is very unlikely to happen.
James isn’t using Irving’s interest in playing with him as leverage to try to force the Lakers front office to pursue a sign-and-trade for the free agent guard, Buha writes.
As a free agent this offseason, it appears that Irving looks would rather sign a max contract with the Mavericks than to take a pay cut to play with LeBron again in Los Angeles.
"The Lakers could open up as much as $30-35MM in cap space to sign Irving but he apparently doesn’t want to take a discount. A sign-and-trade scenario would be much more appealing to Irving because he could get a higher salary." (HoopsRumors)
If Dallas didn't want to trade for James, the only other way that he would find himself not on the Lakers is through a buyout.
LeBron is still owed $46 million for his last remaining year on his contract, and he still has a player option for the 2024-25 season.
The main priority of the Lakers offseason right now is to resign key depth players such as Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves.
According to Buha, there is no intention from the Lakers front office to sign Irving.
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