Amid nearly two years of speculation about All-Star guard Kyrie Irving joining with the Los Angeles Lakers, The Athletic's Jovan Buha tells HoopsHype's Michael Scotto that the Lakers won't even attempt to acquire Irving this offseason.
“From what I’ve been told, they’re not going to be pursuing Kyrie Irving this offseason… To my knowledge and to what I’ve been told, the Kyrie ship, I think, has sailed. You never want to say never. That could easily change, but as of right now, their plan is to run this (team) back.”
However, while this may put Lakers fans in an uproar, Buha makes it clear that the primary reason is that the franchise has been impressed by the team they were able to put together at the trade deadline.
“From what I’ve been told by my sources around the organization, they wanted to run this situation (current roster) back. It’s looked good so far. They’ve won a lot of games. They’ve done a lot of winning without LeBron James. That’s something that’s kind of been under-discussed.”
This news is particularly interesting in light of the fact that the Lakers have a legitimate shot at obtaining him as a free agent, should he desire to play for the Lakers more than his current team, the Dallas Mavericks. Furthermore, in the eight games that D'Angelo Russell — one of the players they acquired at the NBA trade deadline — has played, he's averaged 18.8 points and 5.9 assists on 46.8 percent shooting from the field and 41.1 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Those numbers may not be quite what Kyrie is capable of producing, but they have been enough, as the Lakers have went 5-3 in the games that Russell has played.
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