There’s a possibility that Kyrie Irving might have played his last game as a Net, but don’t assume the Lakers are eager to add LeBron James‘ former Cleveland teammate. Sources told The Athletic’s Sam Amick the Lakers have significant concerns about acquiring Irving at any price and have not been focused on that possibility during the young season.
A report from The Athletic in early October noted that Irving wasn’t in the team’s plans and the latest controversy surrounding him has made it even more implausible.
We have more on the Lakers:
- Making sure Anthony Davis gets enough touches is a priority, Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes. Davis only attempted two shots in the second half of the loss to Cleveland on Sunday. “Obviously, it starts with AD and getting him more touches,” James said. “Our focal point is and always should be to make sure he touches the ball throughout the course of possessions, quarters, halves.”
- Kendrick Nunn opted into the second and final year of his contract during the offseason but he has struggled after missing last season due to a knee injury, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times points out. Nunn is shooting just 28.6% from the field, including an 0-for-5 outing in 18 minutes against the Cavaliers. “I’m just trying to take the lid off the basket,” Nunn said. “That’s all. That’s it. I got some great looks, just taking that lid off and getting comfortable in my spots, get comfortable seeing where they are coming from. I’ll be good.”
- The Lakers have lost seven of their first nine games and James says their record is deserved, Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes. “I’m a guy who stays in the moment and we are who we are,” James said. “We have to get better and compete every night — which we’ve done. We’ve competed. This ball club has definitely competed. But we’ve, for the majority, we just hit a wall at one point and it’s hard for us to recover after that.”
- James might finally be showing his age, which is why a trade to assist him and Davis may still not catapult the team into contention, Eric Pincus opines in a Bleacher Report story.
Lakers are 2-8. They will probably suck it up and get Kyrie if they can
No, they won’t. Too many Jewish Laker fans would be (rightfully) mad at having this hate-speech advocate in LA.
Kyrie & Joe Harris to LA for Russ, Reaves & LAL’s 2027 1st.. #FreeKyrie & also #FreeCamThomas
Antisemite
The Lakers are as relevant as Lava Lamps and will be until they can find a way to sucker somebody into taking Davis and Westbrook while hoping Bron Bron can play until he’s 50. Good Luck with that. This is what happens when you let the players dictate personnel. Bronnie asked for them and got what he wanted. Unfortunately for Buss.
Hey that is an insult to Lava Lamps…
Yeah! I love my lava lamp. It’s no NOODLE like Davis.
Is Kyrie actually going to /help/ if he ends up in LA, or will he only make things worse? I sincerely doubt he’ll do anything but the latter given his track record with the Nets.
I don’t think his BS will fly too hard in LA. He might get beaten up every day he goes outside.
If you’re the Lakers you would take on the headache after he did some BS sensitivity training, some outreach PR show, and you’d only be on the hook for a vet min contract. You would not trade Russ. Why would you? You’d save that contract for others at the deadline.
I’m a vacuum yes easily
But there’s probably a lotta money to be potentially lost for years
Gotta imagine the Jewish community dumps a ton of money towards Jeanie thru different avenues
Per always , anything that procures major bucks will be vetted by many different sets of eyes ( data analysts , etc etc )
Not sure the Lakers can be “saved” at this point. Too many holes that need to be filled.
They can’t Barry without throwing an ill- advised Hail Mary abd praying -(2 un protecteds )
Best just to take the licks this year and use the cap wisely next year for some shooting IMo
Kyrie is 27/5/5/ on 45/28/93 this season when he’s actually played, which is probably an improvement over Kendrick Nunn’s 2.8 PER
But I think it depends – if Kyrie is waived – how he’s waived. Does he do enough performance art apologetics to get the ADL to accept his half a mil? If so, I’d bet good $$ he’s in LA – assuming that Tsai just wants to him off the roster at all costs (in which case it’s probably a fire-sale in BK).
But if he does nothing and is seen as essentially Farrakhan-adjacent, then I think LA (and the rest of the league) probably pass until more smoke clears.
I’m not going to speculate on age catching up to LeBron until he has a full season of sub-20 PER under his belt. He started slow last year and ended the season 5th in the League in BPM and 4th in PER