Asked after Game 5 of the Mavericks‘ first-round playoff series whether he considered joining the Lakers and reuniting with former teammate LeBron James when he reached free agency last offseason, Kyrie Irving smiled and said that “everything was considered,” according to Melissa Rohlin of FOX Sports.
“He’s a great friend of mine, a great brother of mine,” Irving told Rohlin. “We obviously played together [in Cleveland]. Everybody knows our history. But there were so many different factors in between. When it comes to business decisions, you have to ask the GMs, the presidents why certain things didn’t work out.”
The Lakers were rumored as a possible suitor for Irving at the February 2023 trade deadline before he was traded to Dallas. They were mentioned again when Kyrie became a free agent, though by that point Los Angeles seemed more focused on retaining its own free agents. For his part, Irving said he’s happy with his decision to re-sign with the Mavericks.
“I know I can speak for myself that I’m grateful someone took a chance on me,” he said. “Dallas welcomed me with open arms. For me, it wasn’t time to think about the ‘what ifs.’ It was time for me to put my best foot forward. That’s what I did. It’s hard to think of the ‘what ifs,’ the allure, the thoughts of it.”
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- The Mavericks will once again be without Tim Hardaway Jr. on Friday, according to the team (Twitter link). Hardaway will miss his fourth consecutive game due to a right ankle sprain. The Clippers, meanwhile, have upgraded Terance Mann (right lower leg contusion) from questionable to available, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Mann averaged just 3.5 points in 21.7 minutes per contest in the two games Kawhi Leonard played, but has scored in double-digits and logged at least 31 minutes in each of the three games Leonard missed — Kawhi remains unavailable for Game 6, as previously reported.
- In addition to firing head coach Darvin Ham, the Lakers have let go of all their assistants, clearing the way for the new head coach to build an entirely new staff, sources tell Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). That group of new coaching free agents includes veteran assistant Phil Handy, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
- Woike of The Los Angeles Times and Khobi Price of The Orange County Register each take a look at some potential candidates to replace Ham as the Lakers‘ head coach. Both reporters cite Nuggets assistant David Adelman, with Woike writing that Adelman has fans within Los Angeles’ front office.
- Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic identifies eight potential big-name trade targets the Warriors could pursue this offseason. Golden State always aims high, but most of the names on the list, including Kevin Durant, Lauri Markkanen, and Paul George, look like long shots, while the most viable option – such as Zach LaVine – doesn’t seem like a great fit.
Can the Warriors trade for anyone give. Their cap space? Not sure how that works exactly?
It depends on who. I believe after the draft they could trade 4 1sts if you include the 1-20 they already dealt 21-30 in 2030. So they have the standard package of picks. Now matching salary for a player is interesting. They have Wiggins at like 27M and could guarantee up to the full 30M of CPs salary so that gets you up to matching for most players. It is however hard to both get the salary down a little so that you get an MLE and no monster tax. If you cut CP and pay Klay like 23M you get far enough below the tax next year to have the TPMLE and be well below the second apron. They are at 144M next season if you cut CP before paying Klay and if you waive Loony and resign him for the min, which is all he will get after the year he had than you can maybe even open up the full MLE to sign a roll player thats pretty decent.
It all gets expensive again the next year if you give Moody and Kuminga real extensions, but the cap is also spiking by quite a bit.
No
No
So the Lakers first choice is Nuggets assistant coach? Lakers can’t beat the Nuggets so they want an inside who knows the Nuggets plays. Wow just wow!
Says one media guy, calm down
Wow
Is firing the entire coaching staff a sign that LeBron doesn’t plan on coming back? Phil Handy has been with Lebron since his 2nd stint in Cleveland…
I think the Pelinka see’s the writing on the wall. You’re not go anywhere in the West if you have 2/3 salary eaters, no above average young guys on team friendly deals, and a bench of vet mins. Plenty of teams sticking to that strategy is both conferences.
Sign and trade Lebron, move AD in February, let your mediocre guys boosts their stats in on empty roster and then flip them. Presti era of GM-ing is here.
Presti era Gming ?
Can’t wait, really user friendly experience as well for the fans , things get tough you tuck tail and self sabotage under the Presti plan….. ofc all while patting yourself on the back in the process.
Only thing left to decide is who gets to sculpt the Presti statue and how many streets we need to shut down for the parade afterwards
The Lakers think more highly of themselves than the rest of us. Trade Bron and AD. Build a real team with home grown Talent. AD is not a winner.