The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets are heavily engaged in trade discussions centered around a Russell Westbrook-Kyrie Irving package, league sources tell @YahooSports: https://t.co/trNOzrmNbI
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 2, 2022
LEBRON AND KYRIE MUST GET TOGETHER TO SAVE THE LAKERS!!!
meh
Counterpoint: James Harden and Kyrie Irving must bury their own hatchet, rewrite their narratives and cement their legacy in Philly. Joel Embiid may want Kevin Durant, but this team doesn’t have the trade goods to do that. So he should push for the more affordable, wayward All-NBA talent.
There are likely few Sixers fans clamoring for this type of move. I am happy with the lonely peninsula of Fili Kyrie.
You can take all that calm, slimy Philly-Rockets-Petri-dish chemistry and add a frothy, bubbly, flammable foreign strain. And you could be doing it in Embiid’s prime instead of just watching some Western rival go up in flames.
They don’t have the culture or infrastructure to deal with what you say, they need a winger not goal scoring guards of course:
In my opinion, the Sixers only have one Reggie Bullock sized hole left to fill on the roster and they will be determined
— Marty Teller (@mwteller) July 3, 2022
Those perfectly reasonable voices might think of this as some unrealistic, antithetical Jokers heel turn a little more than a viable winning strategy.
Those pragmatists don’t care, Irving listed the Sixers on his short list of six teams in preferred destinations because they remember that a week ago ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said, “with [Kyrie] I don’t think you’re saying, “That’s not going to happen, that’s never going to happen.” But I think that roster in terms of Dallas, Philadelphia, the Clippers — I don’t think there’s interest there.
But now, a week later, The Athletic’s Shams Charania weighed in on “The Rally” and said the Sixers are among three “Irving suitors,” along with the Mavs and Lakers.
Listen, I think I hear mutual gasps!
Daryl Morey does have a reputation for valuing star power over chemistry and fitness. This will certainly push that philosophy to its limit, but this is Kyrie bleepin’ Irving after all. Can Doc Rivers manage star personalities in a way that Steve Nash perhaps couldn’t?
Here’s the basic gist of a frame, in my opinion, via Fanspo:
Mathis Tiboul, Tobias Harris (who is “very likely” to stay with the team despite the rumors), and the 2029 first baseman (if you have to include him). Anyone? Don’t jump all at once. Come on, half of you have been throwing these two’s paychecks for three weeks now.
Thybulle doesn’t look like a lock to earn huge minutes next season and his trade value has to be very low or I suspect he would be gone by now. And the difference between Irving and Harris is what? Top 12-20 vs. top 40-60 player when both are available? That’s really the only difference here, a massive upgrade.
Availability is not Irving’s middle name, I understand. If it did, it wouldn’t be available for trade.
But given his lineup and injury history, you can actually give him 15 regular season games if you want. It would be optimal to run it from time to time.
Irving is eligible for an extension and trade, where he can get two years included in his current one-year, $36.5 million deal. But maybe Daryl and Elton would prefer a one-year deal. Heck, Kyrie can call JJ Redick and ask about life in the New York area and the commute.
Irving, when healthy and available, puts the fear of Zeus into opposing defenders
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Right now, the Sixers may not have a player who is completely immune to a hostile environment and the most intense pressure. But this strange little guy?
Sometimes it’s really hard to get Embiid the ball when he’s being doubled, tripled and led. In the past, Harden has failed miserably in some high-intensity playoff elimination games.
Here’s a guy who can create something out of nothing, whose mere presence would drastically limit the number of doubles Embiid would see, and who arguably took the most shots in league history.
Embiid, Harden, Irving, Maxey, Tucker, Melton? It might just be an undefeated team, or one that could at least take Durant’s next team to seven.
Irving is injury-prone, unreliable, hard to get along with, and that’s putting it mildly:
Kyrie signed with Brooklyn for $137 million. If traded, he would have played 116 of a possible 324 games for Brooklyn during that contract. He used his discretion to sit out most of last year and tweeted that he was caged. Wild
— Josh Eberley (@JoshEberley) July 1, 2022
If you think nothing can wipe the smile off Tyrese Maxey’s face, you can almost picture Irving saying hold my beer. Vibrations may be unstable. But remember how much better people told us the mood would be when Jimmy Butler left? Winning also provides a boost.
So again, it’s a big, big risk.
2017 – forces a trade from a team with LeBron near his peak 2018 – gets injured for the 5th time in his career 2019 – leaves Boston’s young team + leaves 2020 – gets injured again 2021 – gets injured again + refuses to be waxed so he can play 2022 – wants 5 years max
lol
— Real Hooper Pilled Trill (@TrillBroDude) June 27, 2022
Irving left a lot of smoldering things in his wake.
Counterpoint: The Sixers’ current situation also involves a lot of risk. Meeting in the Hamptons now to break down massive $100 million bets on Harden’s aging 33-year-old legs, etc. That’s more All-Star insurance.
Also, the 30-year-old Irving won a title in 2016, and if the Big 3 Nets were healthy in 2021, they would smoke the Hawks, beat the Suns, and he’d probably have two. While we’re in this “Harden was never hurt” fantasy, the Nets might have won the title again in 2021-2022. The “ifs, woulds, and coulds” don’t do anything for the Nets, but if you’re trying to predict the future, they can provide golden clues that your rivals may overlook.
I’m not saying that landing Kyrie will make the Sixers a super team, but by my calculations, super teams win about half the time, which is better than the Sixers’ current title odds of 5.8 percent.
So if you think there’s a decent chance there won’t be another vaxx tenure in Philly for next season…may I interest you with some data?
Last year’s best players, for EPM, via Dunksandthree’s:
EPM, like any other single measure, is far from perfect, but dude, the analysts ranked Mr. Mercurial 7th in the entire league, behind the same three guys the old-timers voted MVP. Tobias Harris is ranked 170th to Russell Westbrook’s 235th.
“They even had the 76ers on the phone willing to give him a 3-year deal, but there was no way in hell he was going to be interested in going to Philly and rejoining James Harden or anything, so that was a smokescreen” -@stephenasmith https://t.co/ViGKNDSz23
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) June 30, 2022
On that trade-in, if you’re not happy with the current roster and don’t want Kyrie, would you prefer something like our Bryan Toporek cooked up?
or:
or even a Harris roll and doing:
These deals may not be available. But if they were, how comfortable would you be betting on Gordon Hayward or TJ Warren to play a lot of games anyway?
OK, the elephant: Harden would never do that.
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Probably not and I wouldn’t even be excited to check after he took a huge pay cut. But perhaps you could remind him of what Alex Schiffer once reported: “[Harden] came to Brooklyn expecting to be part of a three-headed monster, but played a role similar to the one required of him in Houston: he had to be the man.”
Or something like this, from B/R’s Jake Fischer:
“Harden also wanted Irving’s help and made several public jabs at Irving’s vaccination status during media availability.”
So yes, there are funny sage-burning stories, but really all of Harden’s reported beefs were because he was kicking ass on a bum, desperate for a ring, while Irving wasn’t available to play fully in some weird crusade.
Can Kyrie somehow convince Bird that he’s ready to make up for lost time and slay now that he’s eligible to play in 29 of 30 arenas? (Imagine if the Sixers got Kyrie but the Raptors got Durant and Philly had to visit this arena just for the vaxx?)
Probably not a starter as Harden is deep in contract negotiations. Or maybe their offer has already been rejected and this is dead in the water.
But for god’s sake, if the Nets are really about to trade Kyrie Irving to the 17th-round Lakers for Russell Westbrook!?? Brody will make $47 million next season, just shot under 30 percent from deep and turns 34 in November. The price should be approaching some correct value.
“Joe Tsai would rather have a team that plays hard and that he’s proud to own, that wins 40 games and is fighting for a playoff than a team that has a lot more talent that he’s not proud to be a part of.”
– ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on the Nets owner
(h/t @Krisplashed ) pic.twitter.com/WMnwfHPq8L
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) July 1, 2022
If Tsai is annoyed by the divas, then he literally couldn’t find a more hardworking, epitome of sportsmanship, leadership and maturity than…
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