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

[Dundalis]

I don't think there's any chance they trade him unless he demands a trade. Nico and Kidd wanted and like Kyrie. They all 3 get along. Kyrie is here to stay.

If a team puts in a good offer for him (I could see a team like the Clippers doing just that), I think he's out of here. The reason I was against any 4 or 5 year deal from the start, is because you need Kyrie Irving to be tradeable. Pretending like he's not an injury prone 31 year old with genuine and team distracting off court issues is sticking your head in the sand. This team has tanked it's average age, when simply didn't have to. They will hopefully continue to with the next trade they make. The Mavs could have very easily offloaded the assets they had this offseason for true win now pieces in their prime years, but did not. They risked their biggest tradeable asset primarily on youth. If they had real (any) interest in Kyrie's specific timeline, they would not have done this IMO.

They have now put the bulk of the team's core assets on the same timeline as Luka which has rarely been the case so far. That doesn't mean Kyrie is an auto trade, but what it clearly indicates is Kyrie is expendable. You want Kyrie here long term, you sign him to 4/5 years and go get win now pieces with your best assets, not invest in youth, and sign him to a shorter term contract that will become very tradeable within 6-12 months if Kyrie performs well.

I’ll respectfully disagree.  This team would be under the LT (an important factor for future spending).  Yes, we need the things you mention (though I think OMax supplies the defensive wing part in pretty short order).  Yes, Bojan is older.  But he’s better and most importantly he’s on a very friendly contract.  Moving off of McGee and Hardaway’s guaranteed money would be big.
There is a here and now element to team building and there is an element that looks at the next few opportunities to make moves and tries to set us up well for those.  If you can get the better player AND set your payroll up better for future flexibility, that is a HUGE win.  Our second unit needs some playmaking and Bojan would provide that from a position other than the one Hardy plays.
Looked at another way, If I said before the summer that we got Lively, OMax, Holmes, Grant W. Bogdanovic, Seth and Exum for #10, THJ, Reggie, McGee and a 2030 pick swap.  Would you have signed up?  I’m celebrating what we have (or would have).  We will never arrive at a place where the roster feels done.
Edit:  BTW, I think we all need to recalibrate our thinking toward the tax line vs. the first apron.  I think FG called this one correctly.  If there isn’t someone worth going over the LT, I doubt we will.  Right now, I don’t see that player.  Even if it was just THJ for Bojan, we’d be snuggled up just under the tax.

I wasn't really trying to say I would be against the trade in and of itself. I'm just saying we have needs, and obviously you dedicate your resources to investigating and facilitating the moves to meet those needs. On court needs should come first before financial needs in our position. This is a team improvement move, but it's a rather ancillary and minor team improvement move compared to acquiring a 5 or another versatile defensive 3/4. Obviously the financials probably give it more value but Im just looking from an on court perspective. So I don't know why they would be focusing their resources on facilitating this type of move unless there's literally nothing out there that can fit the more pressing team needs. But I'm not against the move in and of itself.