According to Yahoo, the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets have started talks for a trade between superstars Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook.
The beginning of “free agency” is crazy in the NBA, with the departure of Kevin Durant, the arrival of Rudy Gobert in Minnesota or the huge contracts signed by Nikola Jokic in Denver and Zion Williamson in New Orleans. And it’s not over ! According yahoo, an exchange between two superstars could well happen in the next few days! The Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets are indeed discussing a “trade” between Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook. The two players have both activated their “player option” for next season ($36.5 million for Irving, $47 million for Westbrook), but that doesn’t mean they won’t leave, far from it. An agreement would even be close between the two franchises, according to the American media, but the discussions are stumbling over the other players and the draft rounds to be included in the transaction. The Nets would indeed like to add the contract of Joe Harris (who is returning from injury) to 38.6 million dollars in the exchange, while the Lakers would prefer to recover Seth Curry and his contract year at 8.5 million.
A disappointing season for both players
If he arrived in California, Kyrie Irving (30) would discover the Western Conference and find LeBron James, with whom he played from 2014 to 2017 and won the championship title in 2016. The Melbourne native remains on a season with 27.4 points, 5.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds on average in 29 games, he who could not play a large part of the meetings because he was not vaccinated against the covid. Russell Westbrook (33) would return to the East if he landed in Brooklyn, after playing the 2020-21 season in Washington. Sent in 2019 to Houston against Chris Paul, in 2020 to Washington against John Wall and in 2021 to the Lakers against Montrezl Harrell, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the leader could well experience a fourth “trade” in four years, he who remains on a season with 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists in 78 games, but which was generally disappointing for the Lakers.
