3 trades to get Kyrie Irving onto the Lakers to reunite with LeBron James

2. Kyrie Irving for Anthony Davis, straight up. Deal Russell Westbrook elsewhere

This may not be the trade Lakers fans would be hoping for, but it has to be put on the table. Anthony Davis has not risen to the occasion in LeBron James’ time of need. The man was shamed out of not shooting a basketball for nearly two months. If a guy is not taking his game seriously as he is rapidly approaching 30, what will, honestly? This is why parting ways with Davis is possible.

Trading Davis for Irving straight up keeps things simple for the sake of argument, but nothing is as simple as it seems. Davis would actually thrive playing alongside Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons. We all know how great Irving is playing second fiddle to James. As far as Russell Westbrook is concerned, the Lakers may need to trade him somewhere else entirely in a separate deal of sorts.

This move has the potential to make the Lakers better, but moving off Davis carries consequences.

1. Let’s send Russell Westbrook packing, along with a first-rounder to Brooklyn

Without question, the simplest machination of getting Irving to Los Angeles is to send Westbrook to Brooklyn along with whatever future draft compensation makes the dollars and cents make sense. Westbrook and Durant were former Thunder buddies. While the fit with Simmons would be clunky, Westbrook will so be the most-willing shooter Simmons has never wanted to be before.

What this theoretical deal does is reshuffle the deck so the Lakers can go out and realistically contend for a championship with a big three of Davis, Irving and James. It may come back to haunt them, but James needs one more ring in Los Angeles for legacy purposes. Helping Davis and Irving get a second will do wonders for their images. As far as Westbrook is concerned, he is in New York.

Cap complexities are too complicated, but these are the bases for three possible trade scenarios.