2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

bridges being a sociopath sort of tanked the charlotte plans, imo. they're no longer in financial trouble.

 

Sometimes you have to use one's common sense instead of buy into all the tweets and nonsense.

It is highly unlikely a third team will have to be included. There are only a few teams that have the cap space to absorb RW as it is, and I doubt they are highly motivated to get involved with the limited assets the Lakers have....

No, it is much more likely it will in fact be a straight Nets/Lakers deal once everyone involved realizes exactly the predicament all parties are at.

1) Nets CANNOT keep Kyrie Irving while trading Kevin Durant.....period
2) No team is going to want Irving for a one year rental when he has already made it clear he wants to be a Laker as soon as possible and he intends to sign there after this season
3) Even if you could magically come up with said team to take a risk- I doubt Irving would waive his trade kicker (5.5 million) and there is a good chance he would use his antics as a problem for said team sometime during that year- not to mention no team is going to come close to giving up a first round pick (I have yet to see ANYONE even remotely come up with a sensible package or even a three team package that made sense)

No, the Nets will almost assuredly HAVE to trade him to the Lakers, and the longer they wait the more his trade value likely goes down....with the next Twitter tweet...

1) Nets can likely trade Irving/Curry straight up for Westbrook and come out close to even (they can add a minimum player if they want), get probably a 1st round pick and a swap on the other and the Lakers can ask Kyrie to waive his trade kicker...saving 5 million

2) Lakers can take on Irving/Harris instead for Westbrook, save the Nets 14 million (including waiving of trade kicker) but settle on only one 1st round pick

or...

3) Lakers can take on Irving/Harris and Curry for Westbrook/Nunn, save the Nets 17.2 million (again waiving kicker) and settle for 1st round swaps/2nd round picks (and/or)

Not to mention they "probably" can buyout RW and save another 5-10 million....

Those are the best trades they are going to get, the sooner they realize it the better chance that the 1st round picks will be on the table.

Media can keep making it about "I guarantee you it has to be a 3rd team", "Nets don't want Westbrook", "Mavericks are interested"....yadda, yadda, yadda nonsense all they want but that is where we are at....

No, I do not think THT will be part of the trade....

 

Who?

 

No. You follow your advice.

 

You too

 

No.

 

Maybe...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ya...join_the_lakers_this_summer/s1_16751_37647267

 

I posted that yesterday. That info is off a parody account.

It isn't accurate.

 

They got me again

 

They got me, too.

Shrugs.

 

I mean, think about it. 3.7m mansion? A lake house in Maine goes for a mil.

 

I know.

Median house in OC is 1 Milly.

Should have figured. Whoops.

Same in Los Angeles I think.

 

Glad my real estate experience came in handy. I'm like an assistant coach.

 

I appreciate the level headed, logical thinking.

So how did we get here:

Kyrie created this situation via his antics and health over the last two years and the nets (rightfully so) wanted some kind of protection on his contract moving forward. From reports it seems they got close to a renewal but it fell apart on guarantees and Kyrie’s ego got bruised.

Kyrie then leaked he was thinking of opting out and signing with us and the Nets called his bluff. After they didn’t resign him, he opted in, but I believe the writing was on the wall and the Nets didn’t want to happily invest into a long term Kyrie future. Kevin then asked out because his ego got hurt over the disrespect towards the two stars in Brooklyn.

The nets aren’t backing down to their stars and it looks like they’d rather blow it up than deal with these two exerting their power over the organisation.

If we think about the Net’s owners goal, it’s to win a championship. Now that they’ve blown up this contender, the goal becomes how can they rebuild back as quickly as possible.

The Kevin Durant situation is simple, find the best offer available and get as many good players and draft picks as possible.

The Kyrie situation isn’t as simple. Kyrie has poisoned the well so only one team is bidding for him. So it’s no longer the best offer available, it’s getting the most out of one team.

So what can they realistically hope for?

- Draft assets
- Players
- Salary relief

We have two firsts, no real players they would want unless they like THT, Nunn or Reaves, and we can provide some salary relief.

First of all, is salary relief worth it to the Nets? I assume the rebuild will take time and they’ll be a sub luxury tax team for long enough to avoid the repeater tax. Their owner is also super wealthy, so this is probably a smaller requirement then let’s say for a Charlotte.

Players? I can see them wanting Reaves as a piece, but we don’t really have any gems on good contracts after THT tanked his value and Nunn seems damaged.

So that leaves our draft picks of which we have two. They’ll never trade Kyrie for Westbrook straight up. I mean what would be the value of having Kyrie sit home vs adding salary in Westbrook? So they’ll ask for two unprotected picks and salary savings, we’ll counter with one pick and curry, they’ll then try to throw Harris in and ask two firsts. We’ll counter with a player and a 1st. And I believe this is the sticking point, are we willing to take on another 45m in tax payments for 3 injury prone max players who might not make the playoffs? And this is probably the meaning behind Jeanie’s tweet.

From the Net’s owners point of view, if he can’t win this trade he won’t do it due to ego and the stand they’ve made against extreme star power. Also the media backlash at helping us won’t help this trade either.

I think we’ll overpay or this trade won’t get done. At that point the question becomes do we extend Kyrie for the full max? And if we do is this all a big mistake for the assets we’ve lost and the health and age of our new big 3? Second order consequences could bite us in the a**.

 

For the record, I wouldn't trade Reaves or more than a single pick as I'd like to trade the second pick alongside THT and/or Nunn for a quality wing.

I also wouldn't sign Kyrie to a guaranteed max for 4 years, I'd include specific milestones to guarantee his salary in year 3 and 4 or team options. This would allow us flexibility to let both AD and Kyrie expire / or trade them if their health doesn't work out.

 

so you admit that russ has basically negative value? i thought you felt like we just misused him so badly that he was worth less than what he could actually provide. if the nets (or anyone else) believed that, it changes things.

absolutely. i think in everyone's fervor to get this trade done, people aren't thinking about just how badly it could go for us. like nuclear bad. like worse than last year, but for three years or more bad.

anyway, i agree that i'm willing to give up a pick to make russ for kyrie happen, and the peripherals mean very little to me as a fan (as a negotiator, they would mean a lot). we backed ourselves into a corner, and this is the best option we've had presented so far.

 

You have a lot of patience, sir.