Lakers News: Pundit Unpacks Mechanics Of Potential Sign-And-Trade Deal For Free Agent Kyrie Irving

Will they or won't they?

As the Lakers enter into the offseason, they will be linked with any potential star players that are either available already or may become available. Kyrie Irving is one of those players and we are already seeing more links than ever. The two parties have danced around each other for the better part of two seasons now and hopefully we have a final conclusion on whether they will get together.

The best option would be a sign-and-trade deal between Los Angeles and the Dallas Mavericks so both teams get something. But it's been reported that Dallas has no interest in helping LA. NBA insider John Hollinger of The Athletic gives his take on how a deal could be swing:

"As for the Lakers, L.A. can’t get anywhere close to Irving’s max in any realistic cap room scenario. A sign-and-trade, however, would get kind of wacky but is theoretically possible. The Lakers would need to pick up Mo Bamba’s guarantee, and guarantee Shaq Harrison’s deal, pick up Malik Beasley’s option and sign their first-round pick (17th). After a month, they could trade the pick along with Bamba, Beasley, Harrison and Max Christie and pay Irving up to $43 million for the first season of a four-year deal totaling $187 million."

Per The Athletic

As Hollinger mentions, it would be difficult to execute a sign-and-trade for Irving. The Lakers don't want to give up their depth that helped them reach the Western Conference Finals this past season and they would need to do exactly that to acquire Irving.

Additionally, with the new CBA coming into effect, the Lakers are better off with only two superstar contracts on the books while surrounding them with quality role players. LA wants to have flexibility with their cap space going forward and signing Irving to a max deal would hinder that. 

Irving and the Lakers would be a fun paring as it would reunite him with LeBron James but it's almost a pipe dream at this point. LA is better off running things back with their core of players and giving them a full offseason and training camp to gel together. 

Maybe we finally will be done with these Irving-to-LA rumors after this.

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