The Athletic: "Kyrie has long been interested in playing with Anthony Davis"

[CelticsElite]

https://theathletic.com/1029788/2019/06/15/aldridge-lakers-get-their-man-pelicans-work-their-plan-ripples-are-nba-wide/

Sources have been telling David Aldridge of The Athletic for months that Kyrie Irving would like to play with Anthony Davis.

The Boston Celtics had been the presumed favorites to acquire Davis, but the expected departure of Irving and the lack of interest in the franchise from Davis allowed the Los Angeles Lakers to trade for him.

Irving has been most strongly linked with the Brooklyn Nets.

It not yet known if the Lakers' acquisition of Davis will change the free agency equation for Irving.

[Bobshot]

I doubt Irving would be thrilled playing with James again. There is an obvious bias here.

By the way, Aldridge is a Lakers fan from LA. That's been clear his whole career. Nice guy, but west coast bias.

[ETNCeltics]

From what I've read, LAL won't be able to offer max contract. Can't see Kyrie going anywhere without a max deal.

[jambr380]

I said this in the other thread where this was mentioned, but, if true, Danny has some 'splainin to do. If he had traded for AD using Tatum, that would have at least allowed us to keep Kyrie (hopefully on a 4-5yr max). Even if AD left in a year, we would still have the Kyrie asset - you know the in-his-prime perennial All-Star.

It would have allowed us to go all-in for a title for at least one year and if it didn't work out, we would basically be back to where we started...except we would have Kyrie instead of Tatum/Smart.

I will be very disappointed if this is true...but a little less disappointed if Kyrie miraculously re-signs.

[Green-18]

I said this in the other thread where this was mentioned, but, if true, Danny has some 'splainin to do. If he had traded for AD using Tatum, that would have at least allowed us to keep Kyrie (hopefully on a 4-5yr max). Even if AD left in a year, we would still have the Kyrie asset - you know the in-his-prime perennial All-Star.

It would have allowed us to go all-in for a title for at least one year and if it didn't work out, we would basically be back to where we started...except we would have Kyrie instead of Tatum/Smart.

I will be very disappointed if this is true...but a little less disappointed if Kyrie miraculously re-signs.

There's a strong possibility that Kyrie would have asked for a 1+1 instead of a 5 year max.

[ETNCeltics]

I said this in the other thread where this was mentioned, but, if true, Danny has some 'splainin to do. If he had traded for AD using Tatum, that would have at least allowed us to keep Kyrie (hopefully on a 4-5yr max). Even if AD left in a year, we would still have the Kyrie asset - you know the in-his-prime perennial All-Star.

It would have allowed us to go all-in for a title for at least one year and if it didn't work out, we would basically be back to where we started...except we would have Kyrie instead of Tatum/Smart.

I will be very disappointed if this is true...but a little less disappointed if Kyrie miraculously re-signs.

What splainin'?

If you accept the premise he didn't want to trade Tatum, isn't the explanation rather obvious?

[ETNCeltics]

I said this in the other thread where this was mentioned, but, if true, Danny has some 'splainin to do. If he had traded for AD using Tatum, that would have at least allowed us to keep Kyrie (hopefully on a 4-5yr max). Even if AD left in a year, we would still have the Kyrie asset - you know the in-his-prime perennial All-Star.

It would have allowed us to go all-in for a title for at least one year and if it didn't work out, we would basically be back to where we started...except we would have Kyrie instead of Tatum/Smart.

I will be very disappointed if this is true...but a little less disappointed if Kyrie miraculously re-signs.

There's a strong possibility that Kyrie would have asked for a 1+1 instead of a 5 year max.

Possibly, but given what happened to Durant, I think most players are going to want that 4/5 or 3/4 deal.

[Evantime34]

This would actually be a preferential Kyrie destination for the Celtics. The Lakers don't have enough cap space to sign Kyrie, so if he wants to go there it would be in a sign and trade. That could get Boston a TPE that they could use to improve their team.

[jambr380]

I said this in the other thread where this was mentioned, but, if true, Danny has some 'splainin to do. If he had traded for AD using Tatum, that would have at least allowed us to keep Kyrie (hopefully on a 4-5yr max). Even if AD left in a year, we would still have the Kyrie asset - you know the in-his-prime perennial All-Star.

It would have allowed us to go all-in for a title for at least one year and if it didn't work out, we would basically be back to where we started...except we would have Kyrie instead of Tatum/Smart.

I will be very disappointed if this is true...but a little less disappointed if Kyrie miraculously re-signs.

What splainin'?

If you accept the premise he didn't want to trade Tatum, isn't the explanation rather obvious?

But if you can have Kyrie and AD on the team - along with your other two max FAs who came here to compete for a championship - you do it. I like Tatum - I really do - but to just assume he will reach Kyrie level, never mind AD level, is a pretty big assumption.

If you break it down; if you can only choose one option: 1) AD and Kyrie or 2) Tatum and Smart, you choose 1 every time. If getting AD was a guarantee to get Kyrie to re-sign, you do it, just so you don't lose Kyrie for nothing.

And I don't think we would have had to include '7 years of picks' in a Tatum/Smart deal. I am not saying the Mem pick wouldn't have been involved, but LAL was definitely trading quantity because their outgoing players were far less desirable than the Celtics'.

[blink]

This would actually be a preferential Kyrie destination for the Celtics. The Lakers don't have enough cap space to sign Kyrie, so if he wants to go there it would be in a sign and trade. That could get Boston a TPE that they could use to improve their team.

How big of a TPE could we get in that scenario with the lakers?  Do the lakers have any players left to trade?  I don't even know who is still on their roster now other than lebron, the brow, and Kuzma.

[obnoxiousmime]

Ultimately, Davis chose Klutch because LeBron and Paul won the recruiting war. They tried to force a deal earlier and it didn't work, but ultimately they got their man because no team was willing to bet the farm on a potential rental and call their bluff.

All the players know each other. If Kyrie truly was committed to Boston and wanted to team up with Davis IN Boston, he could have easily recruited him. For all we know, he probably did but either lost that battle with LeBron or wasn't willing to recruit because he wasn't sure/already decided secretly in his mind on whether he was staying here.

Knowing this, Ainge could not pull the trigger on a deal, though he might have still done it if the asking price wasn't so extreme. The Lakers 1) got lucky with the draft lottery, 2) had intense pressure to get a deal done considering the bad press the organization has endured the last few months, and 3) had even more confidence due to the Warriors' injuries leaving the West wide open next year. It's not totally fair to expect the Celtics to have predicted any of those factors, though due to the Kyrie technicality they couldn't deal for Davis during the season anyway.

The final haul the Pelicans got was humongous and it's very possible the Celts dodged a bullet not trying to match it with something resembling a competitive offer.

[jambr380]

This would actually be a preferential Kyrie destination for the Celtics. The Lakers don't have enough cap space to sign Kyrie, so if he wants to go there it would be in a sign and trade. That could get Boston a TPE that they could use to improve their team.

How big of a TPE could we get in that scenario with the lakers?  Do the lakers have any players left to trade?  I don't even know who is still on their roster now other than lebron, the brow, and Kuzma.

The Lakers would still have Kuzma, Wagner, and Bonga - which add up to a total of $5.5M. I am not sure trading those players would add up to much for them anyway since they would need to replace them with cap holds.

But say for the sake of argument, a deal could be made using Kuzma, Wagner, and Bonga for Kyrie. In trading Kyrie, he would be worth $20.1M in outgoing salary (even though he would now be making $32.7M in his 1st year). That would leave the Cs with Kuzma and a $14.5M TPE. I guess I do that deal just for Kuzma, but I am not sure who we could really acquire with that TPE. And I don't think there is anyway the Lakers are giving up their $2M man in Kuzma - he is way too good of value for them right now.