After several weeks of pure chaos, the dust has finally settled in Brooklyn, and Kyrie Irving remains a Net for the foreseeable future.
For Brooklyn, it’s a huge relief after nearly losing their star core. For the Lakers, it’s just another missed opportunity to get better.
Fortunately, not all hope is lost for Lakers Nation. With one year left on his deal, Irving has the option of becoming a free agent next summer, when the Purple and Gold will be released from Russell Westbrook’s contract.
According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, LA still has a good chance to land Kyrie if things turn sour for the Nets.
For the Nets, two first-round picks with Westbrook’s contract for Kyrie and even adding another contract the Nets could get off of with long-term money wasn’t necessarily something the Nets wanted to do for two reasons. One, Westbrook and Ben Simmons couldn’t share the floor from a spacing perspective. Ultimately, to then flip Westbrook, they wouldn’t be able to move him for just one first-round pick. At that point, it wasn’t going to make sense.
If you’re a Lakers fan, you’re hoping chaos ensues in Brooklyn and in free agency Kyrie thinks about leaving when the Lakers have cap space next summer. Teams around the league are going to monitor the first 20-25 games of the Nets. If they’re around .500, the birds are going to be chirping to try and get Durant because they’ll be like vultures.
The Nets managed to keep their core together, but that doesn’t mean that everything is going to just work itself out. Kevin Durant still doesn’t want to play for the team, Kyrie Irving is as unreliable as it gets, and Ben Simmons still hasn’t played an NBA game since the 2021 playoffs. At this stage, there are still so many unanswered questions about the Nets and what they are capable of as presently constructed.
But it really won’t take much for the whole thing to come tumbling down, and the Lakers will be waiting eagerly if (or when) that moment arrives.
