Kyrie Irving Was Courtside To Watch The Lakers' Season End After Windy Stirred The Pot (Again) About A LeBron-Kyrie Reunion
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Obviously the prospect of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving on the same team is going to draw a ton of interest, so maybe Windy is just, well, blowing wind about all this. Then again, we should know better than to doubt the clairvoyant tendencies of one Brian Windhorst. The guy usually has solid information to support his points to some degree even when he makes it clear he's speculating.
Kyrie hasn't won a championship since he teamed with LeBron in Cleveland to rally from 3-1 down to stun Golden State in 2016. The uber-talented point guard has burned through myriad teams and coaches since then. Meanwhile, The King won a title in LA and pushed the seventh-seeded Lakers to the Conference Finals this year.
Sadly for Purple and Gold enthusiasts, the Lake Show ran into the Nikola Jokic-Jamal Murray buzzsaw and got swept by the Denver Nuggets.
I think Kyrie Irving is a moron in a lot of ways. From a pure basketball standpoint, he's one of the most skillful wizards to ever hit the court. Not many guys have the hoops IQ, pure off-ball/on-ball scoring chops and complementary style to bounce off LeBron the way Kyrie proved he could do when they were with the Cavs. No reason to think they can't do something like that again as long as both of them stay healthy. That may be the biggest hurdle to clear. Well...also the fact that Kyrie can use the Lakers' interest as leverage to maximize his payday in the tax-free state of Texas with the Dallas Mavericks.
Given how awfully Dallas flamed out once Kyrie arrived — not really his fault, to be fair — it'd be such a devastating blow if Kyrie walked out on Luka Doncic. The Mavs gave up so much to get him. That'd legit be fucked up. The only way you can justify Kyrie leaving if you're Dallas is a sign-and-trade with the Lakers, who'd need to put just about everyone on the table save for LeBron and Anthony Davis. Plus whatever remains of their upcoming draft capital.
Many of LA's key supporting players who were so integral to their conference runner-up finish don't have the clearest futures ahead. The main man who'll draw a lot of offseason buzz is Austin Reaves, who emerged from undrafted obscurity to be a key contributor on this Lakers squad.
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IDK. We all know Kyrie likes to be all mysterious and shit. He has to be scheming up something. Whether it's playfully flirting with a LeBron team-up only to turn back to Dallas for more money, or he's genuine about heading to LA, it's gonna be a crazy summer until Kyrie signs on the dotted line.
All of this actually seemed a lot more feasible until news broke early Tuesday morning that LeBron James might RETIRE! At least until an official announcement is made on that front — LeBron ain't retiring, in my opinion — let the unbridled speculation begin…
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok