Lakers Best Trade for Kyrie Irving; LeBron & Luka Logic for Mavs?

The buzz around Kyrie Irving and the Los Angeles Lakers will continue to grow with NBA Free Agency nearly one month away, but LeBron James joining Irving, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks makes more sense for all three superstars.

Dalton Trigg | May 25, 2023

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Although we’ve yet to reach the NBA Finals portion of the season, it feels like headlines have been dominated by Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving and what his future holds with free agency a little over a month away.

Given Irving’s strong relationship with LeBron James, the buzz around him potentially wanting to join the Los Angeles Lakers is warranted, albeit annoying. However, the drum we’ve been beating at DallasBasketball.com lately is that it would be much more logical for James to force his way to Dallas via trade rather than Irving joining him in L.A. while stripping down the current Lakers’ depth.

If true championship contention is the goal for James, though, playing alongside both Doncic and Irving with the Mavs should rank higher on his priority list than what has recently been making its rounds on the rumor mill. Is it an idea that's in the pipe-dream category? Sure, but it still makes a lot of sense, and there has been some LeBron-to-Dallas smoke even before Irving became a Maverick.

On today's episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, we discuss this particular topic at length while also laying out the best sign-and-trade package the Lakers could offer the Mavs if Irving decides that he prefers L.A. over Dallas. Given salary cap restrictions, the Lakers would need the Mavs to cooperate in order to make everything work smoothly, but the Dallas front office isn't going to want to do that unless they're being properly compensated for it.

You can watch or listen to the entire episode below, and be sure to subscribe for weekly Mavs content!

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Published May 25, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.