Kyrie Irving trade outcome motivated by petty anti-Lakers motivation

After all the trouble he caused in Brooklyn, it sounds like Joe Tsai went out of his way to make sure Kyrie Irving didn’t end up with the Lakers.

According to Marc Stein, Joe Tsai had an “objective” to make sure the Nets didn’t trade Irving to the Lakers. As outlined already, LeBron James was upset after the Lakers were unable to trade for Irving. It seems that the Lakers had to pay a steeper price for acquiring the All-NBA player. While that statement is true, the Lakers did not keep up with the Nets on Sunday as Irving was traded.

This report by Stein lightens the blame on the Lakers’ front office after not acquiring Irving. Trading for All-NBA talent like Irving would have been a home run for the Lakers. As one’s person tweeted in response to this news, it seemed like the only the Nets Irving to the Lakers if they got the whole state of California in return in the deal.

The Lakers might be better off without Kyrie Irving

While the Lakers could have added Max Christie, Austin Reaves, and pick swaps to the deal (probably getting away with keeping Reaves if they were able to swing those two first-round picks to other teams in exchange for vets), it seems like the Nets always wanted more from L.A than other teams in return for Irving.

The Lakers will need to move on to other targets that include chasing after the Spurs vets or Jazz vets. L.A will additionally try to chase Fred VanVleet. While someone might blame the lakers’ exceptionalism for the Nets’ management not wanting to trade to L.A, it seems more likely that Tsai didn’t want Irving to go to his number-one choice (or preferred choice) after all the headaches that have happened over his Brooklyn tenure.

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