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The first Monday of the NBA offseason got off to hot start. A report surfaced that the contract extension talks between the Brooklyn Nets and guard Kyrie Irving have reached an "impasse" and that the Lakers, Clippers, and Knicks are all teams potentially interested in acquiring the mercurial guard.

For those thirsting to see Kyrie Irving in purple and gold, the guard will first need to opt into the final year of his current contract with Brooklyn, then, work with the organization on trading him to the Lakers. Keith Smith of Spotrac explained why Irving opting in is so pivotal for any chance of a long shot Irving-to-the-Lakers trade happening.

"If the Lakers or Clippers want to acquire Kyrie Irving, they need him to opt in and get traded there vs opting out and going there via sign-and-trade. It's not impossible, but it's pretty close for either the Lakers or Clippers to acquire Irving via S&T [sign and trade] due to hard cap reasons."

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, another NBA salary cap aficionado, suggested that the Thunder could be a potential third team to help facilitate sending Irving elsewhere. This isn't the first time Pincus has linked the Thunder in a potential Lakers transaction. He included OKC as potential landing spot for Russell Westbrook in the past and in any Irving scenario, LA must ship Russ elsewhere.

Pincus thinks OKC, which "can take on a ton of salary in June but not July", could be convinced to take Westbrook if "incentivized". In other words, one, if not both, of the Lakers remaining first-round picks (2027 & 2029) would probably be required to grease the wheels.

He finished the thought exercise with:

"In terms of the original questions on Kyrie/Westbrook - I'd suggest IF (huuuuuuuge IF [sic]) OKC took on Russ, it might be to buy him out so he can sign elsewhere. A buyout would help make sure OKC doesn't go into the 2022-23 tax - don't think a team can incentive OKC to go into tax..- the buzz as I've reported previously - Lakers don't seem willing to just dump RW w/picks. For someone like Kyrie? That's probably more interesting to LAL (opinion, not factual) but difficult."

Essentially, if Kyrie doesn't opt into his the final year of his contract on June 29, the slim odds of him coming to the Lakers get even slimmer.