Ever since they hired Darvin Ham to be their new head coach, the Los Angeles Lakers have been publicly operating under the assumption that Russell Westbrook will still be on their roster next season.
In fact, they reportedly asked Ham and other candidates how they would utilize Westbrook, and there have been recent reports that they may prefer to hold on to him rather than trade him.
But one has to believe that if Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka gets a palatable offer for him, he will be gone.
One potential trade that has been rumored lately would involve essentially swapping Westbrook for perennial All-Star Kyrie Irving, who is currently a member of the Brooklyn Nets.
On the surface, this would seem like a dream trade for the Lakers. Irving, like Westbrook, is a proven volume scorer who can also get his teammates involved and be a solid floor general. But unlike Westbrook, Irving is a great outside shooter, is not turnover-prone and has won an NBA championship.
Of course, Irving won that championship playing with LeBron James in 2016 on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Reportedly, some in the Lakers organization brought up the possibility of trading for Irving at one point this season.
More recently, Pelinka was seen talking to Nets general manager Sean Marks at the NBA Combine.
Is this something that could actually happen, or is it merely a dream?
It would make sense for both teams, but especially the Lakers
According to Bill Oram of The Athletic, both the Lakers and Nets have big reasons to at least consider a Westbrook-Irving trade.
Via Lakers Daily:
“The Athletic’s Bill Oram explained his thinking on a recent appearance on ‘The Herd with Colin Cowherd.’
“‘I don’t think it’s nuts,’ Oram said of a Westbrook-Irving trade. ‘I don’t know that it’s going to happen, but from a logical standpoint it makes sense. From a logical standpoint, the Nets are absolutely sick of the Kyrie Irving experience. The Lakers are sick of the Russell Westbrook experience. That said, the Nets know they have the better player and the better asset despite all of his idiosyncrasies.’”
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Irving’s commitment to basketball has been questioned lately, which may be why Oram said the “Nets are absolutely sick of the Kyrie Irving experience.” He was unable to play for a good chunk of this season after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Since New York City had a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place, Irving wasn’t allowed to play or even practice with his team in any of the five boroughs.
Last season, he left the team for vague personal reasons in January, citing personal reasons, but was seen partying at a club in the Greater New York City area just days later.
Irving’s lack of availability has no doubt hurt the Nets’ efforts to build chemistry between him and Kevin Durant, not to mention with the rest of the team.
Of course, the Lakers soured on the Russell Westbrook experience as this season went on. There were many reports that they tried to trade him prior to the trading deadline and that the coaching staff and even LeBron James’ camp pushed for such a trade.
The team would rather not give up additional assets, especially future first-round draft picks, in order to part with Westbrook, but the possibility of receiving Irving in return could possibly change that thinking.
The risks with acquiring Irving
Irving is one of the NBA’s biggest enigmas. Some don’t know for sure if he is a basketball player who is also an activist in his free time, or the other way around.
Some prominent media personalities have questioned whether Irving truly wants to keep playing in the NBA, and some have even questioned his mental health.
Some of Irving’s efforts as an activist should be admired or even congratulated. He has shown lots of concern for the well-being of the Black community across America, especially in 2020, which was a turbulent year for the nation in terms of race relations.
Among others things, he released a documentary about the death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed by law enforcement when they served a warrant at her home.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCY_jcQntlB/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=aaa22eb1-5c90-4355-9f11-63e03fe3f578
But Irving needs to be fully committed to playing NBA basketball at a high level while limiting his well-intentioned activism to his free time.
The other issue would be his relationship with James. In 2017, Irving demanded that the Cavaliers trade him, and it appeared that his relationship with James had gone south.
However, he recently showed a touch of self-awareness when discussing what went wrong back then during an episode of “I Am Athlete.”
Via New York Post:
“If I was in the same maturity line and understanding of who I am, and I look back, we definitely, definitely would’ve won more championships, because there would’ve been a better man-to-man understanding about what I’m going through. I didn’t know how to share my emotions,” Irving said. “I didn’t know how to do that. So instead of sharing, I isolated myself.”
The North Jersey native also admitted he had a regret about how he handled asking out of Cleveland.
“We didn’t talk during that time,” Irving admitted about his relationship with James. “When I look back on what I was going through at that time, I wish I did, because it would’ve been a good understanding of what the future will hold for both of us and we know how much power we both had together. Me and him in the league together running Cleveland, and then being able to put a better team together every single year would’ve definitely been worth it.”
If Irving and James really have mended fences, reuniting could be very fruitful for them. Irving’s outstanding skill sets could be just what the latter needs to preserve himself and age gracefully.
How Irving could get the Lakers back to the top
Most of the criticism surrounding Westbrook has been centered on his poor outside shooting, questionable decision making, defensive indifference and inability to be effective when playing off the ball.
Irving may not be the greatest defender in the league, but he could be what the Lakers wanted Westbrook to be – and then some.
The 6-foot-2 guard may be the greatest ballhandler the game has ever seen, with his ability to split double teams and traps while getting to the basket with ease.
While Westbrook had trouble at times converting layups and dunks this season, Irving is a pretty reliable finisher at the rim. He shot 70.2 percent this season on shots from within three feet of the basket.
He also shot 39.3 percent from 3-point range for his career, including a career-high 41.8 percent this year. He is effective in catch-and-shoot situations, as evidenced by his 40.9 percent from downtown in such situations this year.
While Westbrook has had problems protecting the ball over the last several years, Irving has averaged just 2.6 turnovers a game in his career. For a player with a career usage rate of 29.4, that is pretty outstanding.
He may not be as prolific a passer as Westbrook, but his career average of 5.7 assists per game is very strong.
Perhaps the biggest thing Irving could do for the Lakers at the end of the day has to do with crunch time, as he is perhaps the game’s deadliest player in such situations.
No one will ever forget the decisive 3-pointer he made with about a minute left and the score tied in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals to propel Cleveland to its first world championship in any sport since 1964.
It capped an outstanding series for him in which he played a huge role in the Cavs overcoming a 3-1 series deficit.
James has been criticized by some for not being a killer in such situations, but Irving certainly is.
Throughout the course of a game, his mere presence would make the Lakers so much tougher to defend than they have been with Westbrook.
Of course, Irving also thinks of himself as a disciple of late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who was as great a closer as the NBA has ever seen.
Irving can opt out of his current contract and become a free agent this summer. Although he said he isn’t going anywhere, he said the same thing early in the 2018-19 season, months before he became a free agent, only to leave the Boston Celtics to join Brooklyn.
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