Dallas Basketball

LeBron Trade from Lakers to Mavs with Kyrie Irving & Luka Doncic? Rumor Makes Sense

The national media continues to push the narrative that Kyrie Irving could join the Lakers in free agency this summer. But what about a different scenario — LeBron James being traded to the Mavericks?

Dalton Trigg

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We said it during All-Star Weekend and now that Shams is on it, we’ll say it again: LeBron James to Dallas is worthy of discussion.

LeBron selected Kyrie Irving in the 2023 NBA All-Star draft, giving the national media more ammo to push the narrative that Irving will join the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency this summer.

There’s a few problems with that narrative, though — one of which being that James also selected Luka Doncic during the All-Star draft. 

If Doncic and Irving are James’ two favorite players in the league, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to want to team up with them in Dallas rather than play with one of them in LA on a worse team? We wonder …

If James’ goal — and Irving’s goal, too, for that matter — is to win another championship before his illustrious career is over, those chances would be much higher if he was part of a Big 3 in Dallas rather than a duo with Irving in LA that would most likely cost more roster assets to make possible.

And now, Shams is reporting that Irving has reached out to James in attempts to lure him to Dallas.

Aside from the competitive aspect of these hypotheticals, there’s another big category that the national media is ignoring when it comes to Irving’s future — money.

The Mavs have Irving’s Bird Rights, which means that they can offer him a five-year max contract and other teams can only offer him a four-year deal. As a 30-year-old point guard with an injury history, do people really think he’s going to pass on a five-year contract that would net him an extra $63 million that other teams can’t offer?

By all accounts, Irving settled into his new surroundings just fine, as he’s felr the “genuine” love from the entire organization and its fan base. Irving and Doncic as a co-star duo, but they seem to enjoy each other’s company off the court as well.

Factor all that into the equation with the money figures, and the path to Irving staying in Dallas for the foreseeable future seems clear. The question is, what kind of immediate future does the NBA’s 38-year-old all-time leading scorer have in mind? More mediocrity in purple and gold, or a true chance at another title in blue and white?

Irving going to Lakers could happen. James coming to the Mavs could happen. There are a lot of cogs that need to turn here … but it’s worth an exploration.

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Dalton Trigg
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.

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