Lakers Rumors: Insider Proposes 4-Player Trade To Get Kyrie Irving To Los Angeles

Would the Nets be amenable to this return package?

Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving kick-started the February 9th trade deadline countdown on Friday when word leaked that he had demanded to be dealt away from the Nets. Your Los Angeles Lakers number among the handful of teams with reported interest in his services, along with the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, and potentially the Miami Heat. Irving has been said to be intrigued by the prospect of re-teaming with his old Cleveland Cavaliers running mate LeBron James in LA.

Yesterday on "NBA Today," ESPN cap space expert Bobby Marks, a former Nets executive, spoke with host Malika Andrews about what the framework of a potential Lakers-Nets exchange could look like.

Marks proposes an intriguing four-player deal that would bring Irving to Crypto.com Arena. In this scenario, the Nets would ship out Irving and overpriced, oft-injured swingman Joe Harris to the Lakers in exchange for one of the team's two movable first round draft picks, Russell Westbrook's $47.1 million expiring deal, and low-key underpaid swingman Lonnie Walker IV.

"It's Russell Westbrook, right? Westbrook's the number there as far as making $47 million," Marks told Andrews. "Now for Brooklyn's sake, if you're the Nets, you're saying, 'Wait a minute, if I'm trying Kyrie Irving, I want to attach a player like Joe Harris to the deal.' Harris has another year next year at $17 million, can we get a first round pick in a deal, add a player like Lonnie Walker here?"

"It's interesting, Malika, from the Nets' perspective, if Irving walks for nothing, then basically they don't have cap space, right? So maybe you're looking for players that have... contracts beyond here. Westbrook and Lonnie Walker don't, so from Brooklyn's perspective, it's got to be a first round pick that's coming back [in addition to the two LA guards."

Walker has emerged as a solid two-way wing contributor for the Lakers, averaging 14 points on .456/.375/.875 shooting splits, 2.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.7 steals. Losing him would hurt, as would taking on the contract of the overpriced, injury-prone Harris. Then again, Harris when healthy is an elite sharpshooter, which would prove extremely useful on this Lakers roster.