Kyrie Irving shocked the NBA world Friday with his trade request. The Brooklyn Nets guard decided he wants out of New York, and now the team has six days to find a trade partner before the 2023 NBA trade deadline. While the Kyrie Irving trade request is a blow to the Nets, it is also an opportunity for both Brooklyn and the Los Angeles Lakers. These two teams can swap problems, and maybe it works out for the better for both teams.
Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons for Russell Westbrook and others
The Kyrie Irving trade request could turn the league on its head at the NBA trade deadline.
Here’s the thing, though. It’s incredibly hard to put a precise value on a player like Irving. From a talent perspective, Irving is a top-10 player in the league and should be worth all the players and first-round picks.
However, from a personality perspective, the guard is so mercurial, a team trading for him never knows when he will play, what he will say, or what his next move will be. For many teams, this means that the Nets would actually have to sweeten the pot for them to take Irving.
What the Nets need in a Kyrie Irving trade partner is a team that is desperate enough to give up something of real value for a player who could simply quit on them after two weeks.
Enter the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers are in 12th place in the Western Conference right now and are desperate to make a move to boost their positioning and get them in the playoffs. Most moves to drastically change the team will have to involve their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks, which general manager Rob Pelinka doesn’t seem to be willing to part with, despite LeBron James’ subtle (and not-so-subtle) protestations.
The answer to this dilemma is a Kyrie Irving trade. In this deal, the Lakers get Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons, and the Nets take back Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley, Rui Hachimura, and Thomas Bryant.
This Nets-Lakers deal reunites Kyrie with LeBron, the only player to ever have any luck harnessing Irving’s potential and the only teammate the point guard has ever won big with. In order to make this work, though, the Lakers also have to take back Ben Simmons, who the Nets seem to be completely over.
Simmons is another player who would bring back almost no value, it seems like, except from the Lakers. In LA, with LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Kyrie, Simmons would never have to touch the ball on offense and could just focus on lockdown defense. And while even that skill set hasn’t clicked of late, maybe James could coax that out of Simmons, too.
On the Nets' side, this could be the best deal they can get because it’s not only about the future with picks. It’s also a Kyrie Irving trade that could actually improve the Nets this season.
The fun part about this trade is that it finally reunites old Oklahoma City Thunder buddies Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Much like Kyrie and LeBron, Westbrook has never been as winning a player as when he played alongside Durant at the beginning of their careers. Westbrook isn’t the player he used to be by any stretch, but maybe reuniting with Durant can reignite something.
Brooklyn also gets Patrick Beverley, who is a proven playoff player, a leader, a defensive stalwart, and a true bulldog who will go so far as to grab a photographer’s camera and show it to the ref when his star teammates get fouled. He’s also playoff tested and could help Durant and the Nets in the postseason.
Lastly, Thomas Bryant and the recently-acquired Rui Hachimura are solid young players now and could be building blocks for the future if this Kyrie Irving trade request is just the first step of the Nets having to blow everything up this offseason and start from scratch.
Hachimura turns 25 the day before the NBA trade deadline but has real 3-and-D forward potential in the right situation. And Bryant is the same age, despite having two more years of NBA experience than Rui, and can be an excellent NBA big man if he can ever stay healthy for an extended period of time.
And speaking of possibly having to blow it up, this trade also gives the Nets a ton of cap flexibility. The Nets would ship out $72.3 million in salary and get back $68.1 million in expiring deals. That will help a lot if this Kyrie Irving trade request is the beginning of the end for the KD Era in Brooklyn.
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