[HAYNES] Nets and Lakers actively talking Russ/Kyrie trade…

[Ballerhogger]

still think there's a chance a team like Charlotte tries to use this as a chance to get off Gordon Heyward's contract. Send him to Brooklyn with a few 2nds, take WB

GH definitely fits better with Simmons.

If Brooklyn is going to have any chance, they need to just surround Simmons with as many shooters as humanly possible

agreed mitch should be on the phone trying get off hayward contract anyways/

[Karmaloop]

LOL a "puff piece" that makes way more sense than whatever BS Haynes is putting out.

Harris is the longest tenured Net and has been consulted by Marks on several decisions. The idea that we would just dump him is asinine.

Hes a top 5 shooter in the NBA easily and all he had was ankle surgery. Not really a "major injury."

Again, you can believe what you want. I want Harris on the team next year to help us make the playoffs. Not taking Westbrick just so you can get kooky Kyrie paired with LeBron on some wild goose chase to win the Championship.

Yes, puff piece. I honestly don't recall the last time the NY Post ever broke any NBA news. Legitimately can't recall a single time. And you want to discredit what Haynes said, but what he said doesn't necessarily contradict what the NY post reported. The Lakers could not want to bring back Joe Harris, and the Nets didn't want to trade Joe Harris.

[Hello Brooklyn]

LOL a "puff piece" that makes way more sense than whatever BS Haynes is putting out.

Harris is the longest tenured Net and has been consulted by Marks on several decisions. The idea that we would just dump him is asinine.

Hes a top 5 shooter in the NBA easily and all he had was ankle surgery. Not really a "major injury."

Again, you can believe what you want. I want Harris on the team next year to help us make the playoffs. Not taking Westbrick just so you can get kooky Kyrie paired with LeBron on some wild goose chase to win the Championship.

Yes, puff piece. I honestly don't recall the last time the NY Post ever broke any NBA news. Legitimately can't recall a single time. And you want to discredit what Haynes said, but what he said doesn't necessarily contradict what the NY post reported. The Lakers could not want to bring back Joe Harris, and the Nets didn't want to trade Joe Harris.

Brian Lewis has sources with the Nets. They don't "break news in the NBA." You have no clue what youre talking about.

Yes it does if you bothered reading the article.

“I know the Nets absolutely do not want to trade Joe under any scenario,” a league source familiar with Brooklyn’s thinking told The Post.

Haynes reported they were insisting on Harris being in the deal.

[Karmaloop]

Brian Lewis has sources with the Nets. They don't "break news in the NBA." You have no clue what youre talking about.

Yes it does if you bothered reading the article.

“I know the Nets absolutely do not want to trade Joe under any scenario,” a league source familiar with Brooklyn’s thinking told The Post.

Haynes reported they were insisting on Harris being in the deal.

Because there's not a chance that the Nets leaked that to create leverage with the Lakers, right?

[Hello Brooklyn]

Brian Lewis has sources with the Nets. They don't "break news in the NBA." You have no clue what youre talking about.

Yes it does if you bothered reading the article.

“I know the Nets absolutely do not want to trade Joe under any scenario,” a league source familiar with Brooklyn’s thinking told The Post.

Haynes reported they were insisting on Harris being in the deal.

Because there's not a chance that the Nets leaked that to create leverage with the Lakers, right?

I'm telling you what I think. Anything is possible.

I don't think the Nets have any interest in taking back Westbrick. Especially while dumping Harris.

You couldn't get a team in the league to take him right now for a 1st.

[3toheadmelo]

for kyrie's sake he needs to be a laker. lebron seems like the only dude who can keep him in check.

[picko]

for kyrie's sake he needs to be a laker. lebron seems like the only dude who can keep him in check.

He's the only guy that has kept Kyrie in check. But I suspect that might have been easier with a 22-25 year old Kyrie than the 30 year old model.

But you never know. It's a contract year so perhaps he'd be on his best behaviour.

[Karmaloop]

I'm telling you what I think. Anything is possible.

I don't think the Nets have any interest in taking back Westbrick. Especially while dumping Harris.

You couldn't get a team in the league to take him right now for a 1st.

And that's possible. But when you're ready to definitely say one statement is true, and one is false without knowing the entirety of the details is probably false. The truth probably lies in between the two. The Nets probably don't want to move Joe Harris. They don't view him as a bad contract. That can be categorically true. The Lakers may not particularly want Joe Harris given the amount of money he's due and coming off his significant injury. Again, that can be categorically true. I've speculated for a while now that the Lakers don't want to lose long-term cap flexibility AND give up multiple limited-to-unprotected FRPs in a deal. That's why the Lakers would prefer Seth Curry to Joe Harris.

And I've said before, Westbrook's negative value is being wildly overstated. He's a bad contract because you have to tag so much money together to match salaries. At the end of the day, he's an expiring contract. Not something like 3 years, $200M. His contract expires after THIS season. If you don't want him on your roster, you reach a buyout. But the problem goes back to what is Brooklyn's fallback plan if they can't get a deal with the Lakers? Right now, they really have two options. Either hope that some team changes their mind at some point this offseason or push the issue and bring him back. The latter seems impossible if Kevin Durant isn't on the roster.

[SelfishPlayer]

Maybe Kyrie should have opted out. I have determined that I really don't care if the Nets ruin his season. Opting in, then requesting a trade, placed you at their mercy rather than you facing the reality of a free agent marketplace where the Knicks wanted another NJ bred PG.

[God Squad]

Does anyone really believe LeBron at age 37, AD at 29 and made of glass and Kyrie are a legit threat for the Championship? I don't even think they're top 4 or 5 in the West. Off the top
1. Suns
2. Grizz
3. Clippers
4. Denver

Likely/Possibly better than
5. Mavs
6. Pelicans

That's not even including the East teams that are likely better.

lol damn bro, don’t even have the current NBA champs as the top 6 in the West.

Truthfully, I just forgot - brain fart. Meant nothing by it.

Sorry Warrior Fans.

[MAMBAEMD]

Maybe Kyrie should have opted out. I have determined that I really don't care if the Nets ruin his season. Opting in, then requesting a trade, placed you at their mercy rather than you facing the reality of a free agent marketplace where the Knicks wanted another NJ bred PG.

Him opting in was a great move by him. He would have risked losing $30 + million if he had opted out.
It was a no brainer to opt in if they weren't going to agree to trade him.
He is at their mercy but few stars lose out in these stare own scenarios with their teams.

[SelfishPlayer]

Maybe Kyrie should have opted out. I have determined that I really don't care if the Nets ruin his season. Opting in, then requesting a trade, placed you at their mercy rather than you facing the reality of a free agent marketplace where the Knicks wanted another NJ bred PG.

Him opting in was a great move by him. He would have risked losing $30 + million if he had opted out.
It was a no brainer to opt in if they weren't going to agree to trade him.
He is at their mercy but few stars lose out in these stare own scenarios with their teams.

He's not much of a star if he opted into the last year of a contract at age 30. That last year for stars is used to "protect" them from injury. Kyrie opted into his last year with no more guaranteed money beyond this upcoming season no matter what team he plays for. That's a dumb move.

[MAMBAEMD]

Maybe Kyrie should have opted out. I have determined that I really don't care if the Nets ruin his season. Opting in, then requesting a trade, placed you at their mercy rather than you facing the reality of a free agent marketplace where the Knicks wanted another NJ bred PG.

Him opting in was a great move by him. He would have risked losing $30 + million if he had opted out.
It was a no brainer to opt in if they weren't going to agree to trade him.
He is at their mercy but few stars lose out in these stare own scenarios with their teams.

He's not much of a star if he opted into the last year of a contract at age 30. That last year for stars is used to "protect" them from injury. Kyrie opted into his last year with no more guaranteed money beyond this upcoming season no matter what team he plays for.

So if you were him, you would have opted out?

[SelfishPlayer]

Him opting in was a great move by him. He would have risked losing $30 + million if he had opted out.
It was a no brainer to opt in if they weren't going to agree to trade him.
He is at their mercy but few stars lose out in these stare own scenarios with their teams.

He's not much of a star if he opted into the last year of a contract at age 30. That last year for stars is used to "protect" them from injury. Kyrie opted into his last year with no more guaranteed money beyond this upcoming season no matter what team he plays for.

So if you were him, you would have opted out?

The strategy of opting out is all planned before signing the contract. The plan went wrong somehow if you opt in. Him opting in surely wasn't part of the initial plan when signing with Brooklyn. This isn't a singular decision of opting in. The entire plan failed if you opted in healthy. Kyrie looked at this option year as something designed for him to heal a serious injury if he got injured last season and it carried over into this upcoming season. As I type this I wouldn't doubt that Brooklyn refused to let Kyrie practice as a way of tanking his season so that he would have to opt in and they could get something of value for him on the trade market.

[MAMBAEMD]

He's not much of a star if he opted into the last year of a contract at age 30. That last year for stars is used to "protect" them from injury. Kyrie opted into his last year with no more guaranteed money beyond this upcoming season no matter what team he plays for.

So if you were him, you would have opted out?

The strategy of opting out is all planned before signing the contract. The plan went wrong somehow if you opt in. Him opting in surely wasn't part of the initial plan when signing with Brooklyn. This isn't a singular decision of opting in. The entire plan failed if you opted in healthy. Kyrie looked at this option year as something designed for him to heal a serious injury if he got injured last season and it carried over into this upcoming season. As I type this I wouldn't doubt that Brooklyn refused to let Kyrie practice as a way of tanking his season so that he would have to opt in and they could get something of value for him on the trade market.

Fair enough. You didn't answer my question but you do have some good points.

I agree that the entire plan for the Nets failed miserably. Us Laker fans can relate to that after the Westbrook experiment.

But I can tell you, there's no way I would have opted out if I were in his shoes, and potentially lost out on $30 million.
Also, the Nets may be the ones that actually pull the trigger on a trade or not, but Kyrie has much more control than you think. Look how KD is reacting to this whole thing. You don't think him wanting out has anything to do with the way the interaction between Kyrie and the Nets is going?

Also, FAs (current and future) are watching this fiasco unfold. The Nets have a lot more to lose in the long term than just losing Kyrie.

[hoosierdaddy34]

Nets are not dying for that Lakers draft pick. Especially if it means we have to give up Joe Harris too. And take on Westbrick.

Lakers are 10x more desperate. Nets can easily just tell Kyrie to sit and move on.

The Nets aren’t going into next season with Kyrie on the roster and currently have zero other offers for him. Even Nets cheerleader Woj admitted as much today.

Lakers are doing the right thing by waiting them out. I absolutely would put whose more desperate to the test if I’m the Lakers. Especially when you have Kyrie who is going to kill the interest of every other team, if his antics haven’t already.

Says who?

The Nets can easily go into the season with Kyrie. Whats the downside?

If he wants to sit at home he can. Hes used to it anyway.

The Lakers are far more desperate to offload Westbrick.

Nets don’t have the stomach for this. You saw Tsai is letting it be known to everyone how hard the last year was and no one in the organization was in a good place. Tsai just wants to move on. He wants the dark cloud lifted from the franchise. You can try to spin it but if I’m the Lakers? We can go longer with russ than you guys can with the Kyrie distraction hanging over your franchise every day. You guys move sooner than later because that’s what the guy cutting the checks wants.

[Ruma85]

would russ be any better?

Yes seeing how he will play all the games yes

If there isn't a mandate next season, then Kyrie has every reason to play hard next season for his next contract, even if it's with BRK one last time. Even *he* has to realise that there's a lot less interest in him than once existed, when the Nets gave him full permission to call around the league and explore deals.

If he decides to sit out or screw around this coming season, he's looking at taking a massive pay cut in 2023. Even living in his bubble-reality, I think some people in his circle have to realise that, and understand that it likely affects their lives too.

By contrast, Westbrook is virtually unplayable at this point, and adds nothing to a team that looks like it's going to keep Durant around for the time being.

I think the Lakers are drawing a red line in that no future unprotected FRPs are outgoing. By 2027 the Lakers are likely a wasteland in the post Lebron era, so their FRPs are basically gonna be top 5 guaranteed.

Any team asking for multiple of them and/or pick swaps, needs to offer up some hardcore talent that the team can potentially build around along with AD.

Since no hardcore talent is coming back, why should the Lakers basically obliterate their future for non impact players in the short term.

If Jeannie Buss greenlights any such move and it blows up in her face (which it is likely to do), she's gonna be known as the worst Buss kid, as the team will continually suck from 2023 to 2029 and having NO top picks incoming to provide hope.

I agree with all this.

You're not wrong, but you're also looking at LeBron's likely last couple chances to win a title. Personally I think it might be preferable to blow up LBJ & AD to start the rebuild and replenish their picks (assuming that's even possible), but if you keep them, you're in a really tough spot if you're unwilling to do anything significant to get off WB and give Kyrie (or whoever) a shot.

I don't think the Nets expect much from a Kyrie trade at this point, if that helps.

WB gets so trashed here it's disrespectful, he had one bad year averaging 18,7,7, And all he's unplayable. I certainly look forward to a better season this upcoming year.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

WB gets so trashed here it's disrespectful, he had one bad year averaging 18,7,7, And all he's unplayable. I certainly look forward to a better season this upcoming year.

for a team that wants to conpete for a Championship he is unplayable, unfortunately.
18/7/7 really means nothing

[Ruma85]

WB gets so trashed here it's disrespectful, he had one bad year averaging 18,7,7, And all he's unplayable. I certainly look forward to a better season this upcoming year.

for a team that wants to conpete for a Championship he is unplayable, unfortunately.
18/7/7 really means nothing

Agree to disagree.

[gigantes]

WB gets so trashed here it's disrespectful, he had one bad year averaging 18,7,7, And all he's unplayable. I certainly look forward to a better season this upcoming year.

I'm going to assume you're a very young and/or very casual fan.

The Westbrook critiques are legit, and all you need to do is read back through the many threads here and at r/NBA. There you'll find plenty of good summaries and fairly deep dives in to why he's been such a disaster the last few years, and does far more harm than good at his ridiculous salary point, with his fading skill set, awful defense, and chronic stubbornness about adapting his game.

There's really no reason at all for me to repeat and elaborate on the ocean of ink already spilled, so all I can do is urge you to do your reading. Good luck.