Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers have been salivating at the thought of Kyrie Irving leaving the Dallas Mavericks this summer and joining the Lakers to team up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. This has been a rumor for the entirety of the season, and it seemed either with Kyrie taking a pay cut or being sign-and-traded, Irving would be a Laker.
The tables have been turned on Laker fans after it was reported yesterday that Kyrie is speaking to LeBron to join him and Luka Doncic on the Dallas Mavericks. With Kyrie unwilling to leave money on the table and the Mavs refusing to include Irving in sign-and-trade deals, it seems James’ only route to playing with Kyrie again will come from the 38-year-old leaving the Lakers.
LeBron has one year left on his Lakers contract, with a second year dependent on a player option. With the end of LeBron’s time in LA on the horizon, they can reboot their young assets while sending LeBron to a large market with two superstar teammates he’d like to play with. So what would a possible trade look like?
Trade Details
Los Angeles Lakers Receive: Josh Green, Jaden Hardy, Tim Hardaway Jr., Davis Bertans, 2023 No. 10 Pick, 2027 First-Round Pick
Dallas Mavericks Receive: LeBron James
Dallas gives away all the final bits of value left in their roster. Even if James is 38 and on a possibly expiring contract, the price of trading for him is going to be steep, but not as steep as it would have been a few years ago. But why would either side do this deal? Let’s talk about it.
The Lakers Take Their First Step Towards A Full Rebuild
Most of the draft pick pain from the Anthony Davis trade in 2019 has already passed, with the Lakers owing just one more pick in the deal, either in 2024 or 2025, based on when New Orleans wants the pick. This means the Lakers can start moving towards a proper rebuild, with moving Anthony Davis after his 2023 playoff run likely generating more future assets for the team to build with. They’ll be the No. 1 free agent destination in the league and will start to open their salary up after multiple seasons of luxury tax pain.
Jaden Hardy has shown incredible promise in his rookie season as a second-round pick, projecting to meet the high ceiling people had put on him coming out of high school. Josh Green has shown incremental improvements every season and is still a young player with a lot more potential to unravel. The Lakers have shown they are excellent at developing players and they can generate some real on-court value from Hardy and Green, especially in the long term. Hardy averaged 8.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 14 minutes per game, while Green averaged 9.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in a primarily off-ball role with gradual developments to his defense and shooting. He was a 40% shooter from three but on low volume.
Tim Hardaway Jr. could be used in additional deals to earn more assets if LA needed them, but he is a perfectly reasonable option for a veteran scorer that can not only continue mentoring Hardy and Green but also players like Max Christie and Austin Reaves. Davis Bertans could be stretch waived or the Lakers just eat his contract for the season and get rid of him later.
The No. 10 pick from this year’s draft would be another fantastic asset for the Lakers to build toward the future, with a lottery stacked with great prospects. The 2027 pick conveys after LeBron has likely retired from the league, so the pick does have value in terms of the long-term uncertainty with Luka in Dallas.
The Dallas Mavericks Make An Aggressive Championship Push
There is a financial value in having James on your team that will make Mark Cuban and Nico Harrison relatively comfortable giving up anything not named Luka Doncic to ensure LeBron is wearing a Mavericks jersey. LeBron, with both Luka and Kyrie, will instantly make the Mavs the most desirable team to watch on the court, provided the trio gets time on the court together. The assets they’re giving up may be very valuable, but having LeBron on your team is just as valuable, if not more. The Mavs will need to have an informal agreement on Kyrie extending his contract, which experts are now saying is the likeliest outcome anyway. The contract could take the shape of a four-year, $210 million contract as a nice middle-ground area for both player and team.
James can finally step into the role of a secondary and even tertiary option that he has eluded to in recent years, with Kyrie and Luka shouldering the load. Even with Kyrie’s uncertainty, Luka has developed a terrific track record of doing everything for his team. If his offensive load can get lightened even further, he can unlock other areas of his game, like putting his 6’7″ size to good use on the defensive end. James will also address the issue of Luka never having an elite wing on his roster. We saw James can still defend at a high level with a reduced offensive load in the playoffs, so he’ll likely be performing more on that end, given how bad the Mavs have been defensively.
This does put immense short-term pressure on the Mavs, who’ll have to conjure up a 15-man rotation with veteran minimums and a taxpayer mid-level exception. The route to success in the NBA has been coming from having deep rosters, and the Mavs will most certainly not have that if they make this move. But they can have their pick of all minimum players due to the incredible opportunity of being able to play with Kyrie, LeBron, and Luka. It instantly elevates the Mavs but brings various elements of risk as well.
The Mavericks Go All-In As The Lakers Get A New Life
Getting LeBron James in a trade will be easily the biggest acquisition in modern NBA history, even bigger than Kevin Durant’s trade to the Phoenix Suns in February. Getting value from this will be dependent on how the Mavs structure the roster around their incredible big three, especially with the new CBA rules hampering their team-building process. They will still need to get a defensive big man desperately, but with LeBron on the roster, they’ll need that big man to be a floor-stretcher to continue playing the way the Mavs have had in recent seasons. James won’t excel in spot-up situations, so Dallas may be forced to bring back Christian Wood after an acrimonious season with the promise of a possible championship run next season. Wood’s market hasn’t yet developed, so the Mavs could easily re-sign him without worrying because they have his bird rights. After the season Wood had, the Mavs could possibly get a discounted deal due to the lack of interest around the center.
If this doesn’t work out, it likely cripples the Mavericks until their 2029 first-round pick is conveyed to the Brooklyn Nets in the Kyrie Irving trade. Doncic can be a free agent in 2026, so the Mavs will likely have just the next season or, at best, two seasons to win a title with LeBron. James is a free agent next summer and could leave Dallas for nothing after the team gave up everything that they did to acquire him in this hypothetical trade. But the financial and on-court ramifications are so severe that the team likely would do this trade in a heartbeat.
The Lakers will have a harder time agreeing to something like this, given the perceived value of James. If they were to offer LeBron to the entire league, they could easily get an offer that blows Dallas out of the water. But if James wants to come to Dallas, it is unlikely the Lakers would send him anywhere else, given his status around the league and the Lakers’ reputation for being a very player-friendly organization.
Neither Hardy nor Green can be listed as elite young prospects, so there is a fairly high chance that neither can develop into being a franchise star for the Lakers. Anthony Davis will still be on the roster and the Lakers owe their 2024 pick to New Orleans, so they will want to still be competitive. You can construct a relatively competitive roster around AD, but his health means that they’ll still likely struggle. Trading Davis before he hits free agency in 2024 will likely be the priority. The Lakers can take the short-term pain of giving up a lottery pick in 2024 by recouping assets from trading AD and then having a relatively clean draft capital situation going forward. This is a franchise that thrives on stars, so they will be aggressive in pushing for stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo if he hits the market in 2025.
This trade is a massive risk for both teams, but we know that LeBron usually gets what he wants. If Kyrie re-signs and can get LeBron to leave LA, Luka Doncic and Mark Cuban will be incredibly lucky to get that star power, given the team-building errors the franchise has made in the last five years.
