Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[DallasMaverick]

Both Nico and Cuban clearly intimated they would love to resign Kyrie, but either said it's not Kyrie or bust (Cuban), then Nico stated on the radio that while they want to resign Kyrie, they have now brought in players that will work regardless of whether he comes back or not. You can treat these comments as nothing, but this is NOT what you see from a FO that is planning to ensure a star resigns at all costs (it's night and day compared to Cuban's definitive contract extension comments after trading for KP for example, before KP had even stepped on the court).

Luka wearing himself out has zero to do with how he's used (or at least much less than people keep harping on about) and everything to do with his conditioning. That's on him, no one else. Kyrie's TOP was not any greater than Dinwiddie's, or Brunson's before him. Luka has had guys take ball handling duties away from him well before Kyrie, and could have taken more off him, but HE wants the ball in his hands more often than not, no matter who's playing with him, Kyrie or otherwise.

At this point team success with Kyrie is purely assumed. Because the evidence is we had more success without him. Now I'm not saying Kyrie makes this team worse, but IMO a lot of what Kyrie does offensively is at least partially offset by the disadvantage of a small 6'2 guard defensively, and it has knock on effects. He also has off court issues that you simply can't ignore. We lock ourselves into a long term deal with Kyrie at our absolute peril IMO, his history is clear cut, the FO can think what they want, but the above comments give me hope they aren't going into the negotiations with absolute blinders on thinking that it's Kyrie or bust, because it simply isn't, and a WCF without him should at least be a partial indication of that.

Good negotiation requires alternatives.

Kyrie needs to know that the Mavs can walk away from the deal if the price is too high.

They like him.  They like him a lot.  But not at any price.