![]() Irving's max, as a 10-year veteran, will start at a projected $46.9 million. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are set to make nearly $87 million next season, assuming James continues playing. Let's make something clear from the start: the Lakers cannot generate max cap space under any circumstance. So how could he become a Laker? Below, we'll cover the two paths to Irving the Lakers feasibly have, and whether or not pursuing him is the right move going into next season. Irving is the most obvious fit on the board. James has always expected his teams to go big-game hunting. That experiment has seemingly failed, and now that James is considering retirement, the pressure is on for the Lakers. That's why they traded for D'Angelo Russell in the first place. Whether it's Irving or someone else, the Lakers need another reliable ball-handler. James is still one of the NBA's best players, but coming off of a foot injury that nearly ended his season, he was forced to adopt an entirely different shot diet to maintain any semblance of his old shot diet. As we covered during the playoffs, James simply isn't capable of carrying the same pick-and-roll workload that he used to, and he barely ever isolates effectively anymore. Finding him another ball-handler was a luxury at that point. ![]() More importantly, James is two years older than he was when the Lakers landed Westbrook. He's a proven fit with James, and while the Lakers wouldn't exactly be deep around the pair of them, they'd have far more to work with than the 2021-22 team did. As soon as the Lakers traded Westbrook for depth, they made it back to the Western Conference finals. Rob Pelinka's pursuit of star power eventually eroded those two pillars until the Lakers suddenly had Russell Westbrook and 10 minimum-salary free agents. Their 2020 championship team was based on defense and depth around LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Should the Lakers pursue Kyrie Irving? There are a number of compelling arguments against doing so that have nothing to do with his various off-court controversies.
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