Kyrie Irving Is Going Back To Brooklyn? Why The LA Lakers Will Be Fine Without Him
Maeshaila Boggan
4 min read
By the looks of it, the days of the Brooklyn Nets and star shooting guard Kyrie Irving coexisting is coming to a near end day by day. According to many reports, Irving no longer wants to be in Brooklyn and has made it clear that he wants to take his talents elsewhere, but the Nets have no interest in letting that happen.
The Los Angeles Lakers have expressed that they are interested in bringing Irving to L.A to reunite with his former teammate and close friend Lakers star forward LeBron James.
Earlier in the offseason, Irving did sign a player pick up option contract with the team worth $36.9 million for the 2022-2023 season but still expressed that he wants out due to mutual disagreements with a new contract extension deal.
The Lakers are apparently willing to give the Nets two first round draft picks (2027 & 2029) for Irving to come to L.A to join both James and Anthony Davis this season for another possible NBA title run.
If a deal can’t be done to bring Irving to the Lakers, the Lakers will be just fine with that and here’s why ..
- Unreliability
As special as a player that Irving is when on the court, he has not shown everyone why anyone should count on him to bring their team to the big stage or help contribute to that happening.
Last season, Irving has only played 20 out of 82 games last season with missing 52 of the 82 games due to Covid-19 vaccine stance against the NBA and NY covid-19 protocols that requires players/people to be vaccinated and have proof of vaccines shots in order to enter any of their buildings in the state.
On top of that, Irving does have a reputation of being “unreliable” and “problematic” and the last thing this Lakers team who’s clearly aging needs is more of that and more drama being added towards their team direction.
2. Go Another Run With Russel Westbrook
New coaches, new systems that benefit both Westbrook and the team. According to newly hired Lakers head coach Darvin Ham have spoken nothing but positivity when it comes to Westbrook. When asked about him, Ham stated “love Russell Westbrook, man. Just his mentality, his approach. Just to see him, a guy of that magnitude and everything he’s done in the league to get hated on. But being me, I got a wholehearted plan, a clear plan on how I’m going to use him.”
3. Lakers Need A Healthy Anthony Davis Regardless In Order To Compete
Anthony Davis “AD” is without questions a top five player in the league when healthy and on the court but his injuries sure held him back these past two seasons within his legs. From his hamstring, to his knees, and so on. Along with that, he only played 40 out of 82 games last season and only 36 of the 82 the previous season.
Davis has missed 88 out of 164 games in the past two seasons due to injury and averaged 23.9 points per game last season with shooting field goal percentage of 53.2%. He averaged a 18.3% 3-point shooting percentage, which is the lowest of career since 2014 when he averaged a total of 8.3%.
4. Lakers Should Start Shopping For Life After LeBron As Father Time Can Catch Up Real Soon
LeBron James without question will go down as at least a top five NBA players of all time regardless how the rest of his career plays out here in L.A, but there’s no question that the days of James’ prime are numbered on a year to year basis due to both his age and injuries that are now occurring in which sidelined him for at least 32% of the games this past season as he suffered a high ankle sprain.
James played 56 out of 82 games last season, which will feel as a first time everything for him as he’s hardly missing more than a week with injury. With all of this being said, the Lakers doesn’t want to risk going into another “Life After Kobe” story with no answers of a succession plan for the Lakers team of the future.
The Lakers without has something up their sleeve heading into this season with brining either Westbrook or Irving to combine with the duo of James and Davis to squeeze in another NBA Finals run, but they should invest more into their future as the time is ticking on their current roster to get the job done now in a tough Western conference with teams such as the Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, LA Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, and others.
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