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According to multiple reports, the impending free agent is trying to recruit Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James to join him on the Dallas Mavericks:
There are a number of reasons James ending up in Dallas seems incredibly, almost laughably, unlikely.
But first, we’ll let NBA Twitter cook:
Justin Russo@FlyByKnite
Beautiful subterfuge by LeBron and Kyrie to leak this so it puts pressure on the Lakers to bring Kyrie there instead of the other way around.
OK, let’s break this down.
One, how likely does it seem that James will leave Los Angeles—where his family has established roots—to move to Texas in the twilight of his career?
Two, the Mavericks would have to trade for James to bring him aboard, whereas the Lakers could clear the cap space to simply sign Irving this offseason if the pair are hell-bent on a reunion. What exactly would the Mavs have to offer the Lakers?
Not much. Not nearly enough. With Anthony Davis still on the roster, the Lakers aren’t going to tank around draft capital. They have no incentive to facilitate such a move.
Three, a trio of James, Irving and Davis makes far more sense from a basketball perspective than a Big 3 of James, Irving and Luka Dončić. In L.A. James could remain the primary playmaker, Irving could be a secondary ball-handler and perimeter scorer and Davis is the two-way big man. It works.
But in Dallas, both James and Dončić thrive with the ball in their hands, and Irving needs his touches to create off the dribble as well. Asking either James or Dončić to fit next to Irving—a good enough shooter to play off the ball—is one thing. Asking one of them to sacrifice ball-handling and facilitating duties while playing together would be quite another.
In reality, what this sounds like is James and Irving publicly establishing a desire to play together in an effort to motivate the Lakers to sign the mercurial point guard. But by framing it as Irving attempting to recruit James to Dallas, Irving isn’t burning his bridges with the Mavericks if the Lakers aren’t interested in subscribing to The Kyrie Experience.
Time will tell if a James-Irving reunion happens this summer. Just don’t bet on it going down in Dallas.
