The Problem of a Potential Westbrook-Irving Swap
Entering the 2021-2022 season, pundits tagged the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets as favourites to face each other in the 2022 NBA Finals. The match-up didn’t happen as the Nets got swept in the first round of the 2022 playoffs. Meanwhile, LeBron Janes and company didn’t even reach the play-in tournament.
The Nets may have a Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving duo. However, they never had consistent chemistry as the pair only played together 17 times during the past season, owing to Irving’s vaccination status.
On the other hand, the Lakers failed to meet expectations despite having the trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook. It didn’t help the Lakers that Davis only played 40 games last season due to injury and was far from his dominant form during the 2019-2020 season when the Lakers won the championship.
With both squads long since out of the playoff picture, all eyes will be on what the franchises will do during the offseason regarding their starting point guards: Russell Westbrook and Kyrie Irving.
Tricky Situations
Both Westbrook and Irving have unique situations entering the offseason. One of them is eligible to sign a contract extension which many people think he doesn’t deserve. The other has a portion of the fanbase who want the Lakers to trade him because of a perceived dip in production.
The Lakers acquired Russell Westbrook via a blockbuster trade with the Washington Wizards. Unfortunately for the Purple and Gold, the Westbrook experiment didn’t produce a championship as some pundits believed the Lakers gave away too much depth to acquire the former MVP. It certainly didn’t help matters that the front office also had some questionable signings that followed suit.
In 78 regular-season games with the Lakers, Westbrook averaged 18.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.1 assists, and 3.1 turnovers. His three-point shooting (29.8%) was a much discussed problem that hurt the Lakers, especially in clutch situations.
Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving finished his third season with the Nets as the fourth-leading scorer in the NBA (27.4 points per game). He also averaged 5.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 29 games.
Here’s where things get interesting for Irving: he has a 36.5 million dollar player option for the 2022-2023 season. Should he decline it, he will become an unrestricted free agent. The seven-time NBA All-Star is also eligible to sign a five-year extension which is expected to pay him 246 million dollars.
The question now is whether Brooklyn feels comfortable paying him that much considering all the drama they just endured.
Why Won’t a Westbrook-Irving Swap Materialize?
A Westbrook-Irving swap has been suggested since the season ended for both teams. While this trade would reunite Westbrook with Kevin Durant, and Irving with LeBron James, there are reasons why this deal is unlikely to reach any level of serious negotiation.
For starters, the Lakers have already made it known that they intend to keep Russell Westbrook as they refuse to give up additional assets in any trade package. The Lakers new Head Coach Darvin Ham had nothing but praise for Westbrook in his introductory press conferences:
“Don’t get it messed up. Russell is one of the best players our league has ever seen. He still has a ton left in that tank. I don’t know why people tend to write him off. I’m going to approach him like every player I’ve ever encountered. We’re going to talk about our running habits with the ball, without the ball,”
On the other side of the fence, the Nets already have tons of problems outside of their Kyrie Irving dilemma. And while pundits suggest the Nets should trade Irving if the latter doesn’t sign a contract extension, trading Irving for Westbrook will only make sense because of nostalgia. Nothing else.
One has to consider the way the relationship between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook ended in 2016. If you’re Durant, would you want another ride on the Westbrook roller coaster when you’re approaching the end of your prime years?
While the swap could theoretically still happen via a three-team deal or a trade-and-sign manoeuvre, many doubt this deal will materialize because of the sheer volume of baggage that both Irving and Westbrook have at this point in their careers.
-Iggy Gonzales
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.